


Reset Code: Ragnarok

by Silius1



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gen, Multiple Arcs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-31 08:46:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21443455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silius1/pseuds/Silius1
Summary: After spending nearly three years trapped in the VRMMOs: Sword Art Online and Alfheim Online, the remaining three hundred players have finally been freed and have a chance to live their lives outside of virtual reality. However, after spending those years experiencing the virtual worlds of Aincrad and Alfheim, the Senryaku unit found their desire to distance themselves from VR fade in large part to an entry in the market built around the Seed called Tirella which boasts its non-combat attributes making it stand out amongst the crowd, attracting players and companies alike who like those kinds of environments, even with the fact it has a subscription fee, even if it's inexpensive, which has been rather uncommon to Seed based games.





	1. Reawakening

Real Life Standard Time: [18:15] August 4th, 2025

It had happened in what seemed like an instant. When we had helped XANA kill Sugou Nobuyuki, he followed through on his promise to devirtualize us from our imprisonment in Alfheim Online and return us to reality when I saw Katsuo, Sylvia, Kana, Haruka, Mamoru, Asuna, Keiko, and the other SAO players around me vanish one by one before I too found myself enveloped in a beam of light.

Moments later, I begin to feel my eyes flicker and slowly open and repeatedly blink as I find myself almost blinded again by the long LED lights in the fixtures on the ceilings, my hand slowly instinctively moving to shield them from the light, the skin on my person frail like I had been in a long shower. A few seconds then passed as I heard an unfamiliar feminine voice ring out from my right

"Nakamura-sensei, come quick! She's waking up! Karen Koizumi just came to!"

As I begin to move my hands toward the NerveGear on my head, wanting to pry the thing from me after spending over two years comatose, they are instead gently stopped by gloved hands, my eyes turning to see whom seems to be a doctor, wearing a mask covering much of his face which only allows me to see his brown eyes and hair, in this hospital based on what I had heard moments prior

"Please wait a few moments Koizumi-san. We need to make sure we can power down your NerveGear before removal. We want to make sure there are no hidden drawbacks Kayaba had hidden within it."

"O-Okay." I was surprised at how weak my voice was, though I suppose that I had spent years in a sort of a coma, it's to be expected.

As I spend these precious moments paused as the doctor worked to deactivate my NerveGear, thoughts beginning to form within my mind, the nurse gently opening my mouth as she poured some sort of beverage down through my throat

"Don't worry. This medicine is meant to help rejuvenate your throat and give you a little bit of strength."

"Erm, where am I? And what time and day is it?" I'm curious if XANA's devirtualization was instantaneous or if there was a delay to it. After all, I'm dealing with a sentient AI from a different world. I should keep an open mind and try to not to be surprised by unknown elements like this.

"It's quarter after six. August 4th, 2025. And you're in Tokyo Takanawa. We've been very carefully transferring patients from across the country here during the last couple of years, prioritizing on SAO players that were in remote regions to ensure they survive, at least, on our end, ahead of those in dedicated hospitals with high-end Wi-Fi. Few hospitals in Japan are as advanced as this one and the government provided us immense funds in exchange for housing you all. We used that money to maintain the equipment keeping you alive and transporting everyone to one place."

'_Thank goodness. So the process was pretty much done instantly. But does that mean that Katsuo and the others are here?_' Once I see the doctor remove my NerveGear and take off the IVs that had connected me to the machines around me after shutting them down, my amber hair quickly fell out and covered half my face, feeling it reaching down to my lower back. The sight made me remember that my hair had been dyed to green prior to me being trapped in Sword Art Online back in 2022, little surprise it had faded out since then. God, my teachers were so pissed that I had done such a 'rebellious' act when I made and lost that old bet with Makoto and while my parents did support me, they did share their own disdain for the decision. Geez, I can't believe he tricked me into making that bet! He was so smug when he said he could last five minutes underwater before he had to resurface when I was so sure he would only last thirty seconds "If I may ask, did our families have to pay a majority of the fees?"

"They contributed, but a good amount of the money actually came from multiple juggernaut companies and philanthropy groups who generously provided the government with funding or equipment like Wi-Fi signal boosters to help in transporting our patients without disconnecting them from the game. We even had hackers helping by redirecting bandwidth from various computers during transit to this hospital. Technically their methods were illegal since they were stealing it from city networks but we urged the police to overlook this case since they outright said they were doing it solely to ensure the SAO players made it to hospitals where they'd be safe. They had no qualms being arrested for this, but they refused to let this injustice go unanswered. This coalition of people called themselves the SAO Incident Victims Rescue Force, and later on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication rebranded the coalition into a proper agency known as the VR Crimes Division. But what surprised us all is that a majority of the money we needed came from thousands of people across the world who had been flocking to a GoFundMe project led by a woman called Miharu Yoshikuni. She made a video explaining she dodged a bullet, but it came at the price of her losing her younger sister to the game. She reached out to her fanbase to make sure the players are not forgotten. She refused to allow even a single person to die because of complications on our end though sadly acknowledged that getting all ten thousand players out of the game was impossible, since, no matter what, players die in MMOs. But she was adamant on ensuring the people who survive the game would not die."

'_Well, it was nice that this person was making sure we were in the world's eyes-_' "But why did she care so much? Was it only because her sister was in the game?"

"No. She did it because she was a beta tester herself, but switched with her sister for a day. It was a guilt complex since she would've worked to lead her fellow players."

"Eh? W-Wait. Did I say that second part out loud?! Oh boy...my senses are not exactly aligned right now. So...Yoshikuni-san was a beta tester like us? Did she ever reveal what her avatar's name was?" I could feel my cheeks burn a crimson red out of embarrassment since I didn't want these thoughts to be made vocal but my mind is apparently having trouble maintaining this division right now.

"Yes she did. It was the name as the one she uses, or rather: used according to her recent videos: Puck. She decided to take up her sister's avatar after her death to honor her memory: Elwing."

'_Elwing? So that Salamander girl who was working with Katsuo is called Miharu Yoshikuni. Huh. That's new information. Anyway, she was Puck?! She was part of Tenmongaku with Keiko before it was wiped out on floor 33. So that was Yoshikuni-san's sister. I think I ran across Puck during the beta test before I met Katsuo. Yeah, I remember now. I thought I was ahead of the crowd because of how much I knew because of how Koizumi Designs was contracted to help design the world alongside Kayaba, but Puck was a pure MMO veteran, through and through. Any sort of edge I thought I had, she had at least four. She pissed me off so much it crossed over to when I met Katsuo. I'm glad he wasn't angry at me because of how poorly I treated the guy, especially when he had recently lost his parents at the time._' I mentally shake my head since I want to stop thinking about the past right now and focus on my immediate surroundings "Erm...are the remaining Sword Art Online players here?"

"Yes. If you're awake now, the others should be too. I informed the other doctors to get to their rooms to make sure they're stable."

"Would I be able to see friends that I made during my time there? They left the same time as me."

"Normally it's against regulations to reveal our patient information, but this situation is unique. Do you know the names of your friends? Or should we try working with your avatar names?"

"I know their real names doctor. We spent our time working together and really bonded enough to reveal our real names. The friends I want to see are Katsuo Viperia, Kana Shimuzu, Sylvia Miyagawa, Haruka Uchimaya, Mamoru Nakasone, Keiko Ayano, and Asuna Yuuki. There are others I know, but these are the people I want to see specifically."

"Ah yes, aside from Nakasone-san, Shimuzu-san, and Yuuki-san, those people are all in this wing. Would you like to meet with them?"

"Yes please. Is there a place I can go for that?" I stop when something suddenly had come to my mind "Erm, are my parents here?"

"Unfortunately, they left hours ago because of our visiting hour policies with the SAO players. But we'll contact them tomorrow morning since we want you to have time to readjust to being outside of virtual reality. In the meantime, I'll ask the other doctors to bring them to room A238. Could you bring out some leg braces Kobayashi-san?"

"Yes Nakamura-sensei."

After I see the nurse leave the room, my guess is that the leg braces are being kept in a centralized storage room here in the hospital, the doctor turned to face me "Here Koizumi-san, let me help you to a chair so Kobayashi-san can apply the braces when she returns." After taking my hand in his, he gently pulls me up and supports me as I walk toward the chair to my left and helps me adjust my body for the first time since before SAO "If you do not mind me asking Koizumi-san, do you know why you were so delayed in reawakening? Many of the SAO players came to three months ago but three hundred of you were still comatose. We do not know what was keeping you captive."

"Erm, yeah. We did leave Sword Art Online, but we were somehow transferred to a different VRMMO called Alfheim Online. I mean, I know _who_ did it, but I don't know _how_ he did it. I was able to rally nearly half of my fellow players to get us free."

"Alfheim Online? The game made by RECTO Progress? This'll have to be investigated."

Although this is something I want happening since Sugou imprisoned us for experimentation, I am worried that revealing this information could lead to Alfheim being shut down. I met good people during my time as a renegade before reuniting with Hikaru and the others and I don't exactly want to say goodbye to them like this. "Anyway, uh. Is there anything I can use for my hair doctor? I can barely see with it being this long."

"Don't worry, we'll be calling a few barbers to come for the rest of you. There is a salon is a few blocks away from here and can come in only a half hour."

The nurse returned after the doctor had finished saying this, carrying a pair of braces in her arms as she approached me to apply them around my legs

"Kobayashi-san, I need to make some calls. Could you bring Koizumi-san to room A238? She wants to meet some of her friends."

"At once Nakamura-sensei." With a nod of acknowledgement, she helped me stand from the chair I was standing in, keeping a hand on my back as she helped me walk to the door into the hallway "Are you glad to be back in the real world Koizumi-chan?"

"Yeah...it's been a long time. Over two and a half years. It feels pretty surreal when I had gotten so accustomed to being in Sword Art Online. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be back. But it was like a second life for me. One I actually found myself enjoying far more than what I had lived on this side." I found myself pausing as I felt a smile begin to emerge on my face "The people I worked with actually helped me grow as a person more than I ever thought possible. I'm glad I met the people I proudly call my friends, and I'm sure they feel the same."

"Well, I hope your first real life meeting is magical, no pun intended."

I let out a weak chuckle in response to this joke when I hear Kobayashi-san open a door and move the two of us inside

* * *

Real Life Standard Time: [18:45] August 4th, 2025

"You're here too Kobayashi-san? I thought it was a bit of a fluke that one of our SAO patients woke up out of the blue. So another woke up? That's such a huge relief."

"Nope. Everything's finally working out for the best Mieko-chan. So uh, who is that beside you? With his hair out, I can't see his face."

"It's Katsuo Viperia-san. He said he wanted to meet with some of his friends and I brought him here for it. I offered him a hairclip but he refused."

"Yeah uh. Who's that with you there? I don't recognize her."

I inaudibly chuckle since not even I recognized myself for a moment when I came back to reality and took a few small steps toward Katsuo, my legs feeling like they are being weighed down with 500 pound chains, and extend a hand outward with a bright smile, trying to arrange my hair in such a way to keep it from blocking my face though I am thankfully met with Kobayashi-san gently taking my hair in her hand and running it through a hairclip so it's no longer blocking my face "Good to see you again Katsuo. Heh, it's strange to say this since this is our first time really meeting each other."

With my hair no longer covering my face, I saw Katsuo's expression rapidly shift from confusion to relief to joy in the span of seconds "Heh, it really is strange Karen. So your hair is naturally like that?"

"Yeah, I lost a bet with Makoto a week before I went into Sword Art Online. The loser had to dye their hair green." I pause as I take a thick strand of hair into my hand "Oh, if you mean the length, hell no. I normally keep it around my shoulders at the longest. Nakamura-sensei said he had to make some calls, I only hope one of those involve calling barbers from a nearby salon to cut our hair."

"Yeah, I only meant the length, but the color made me think you were a different person. I was just too used to your green hair over the past two years."

"Heh, yeah. A part of me misses it, but at the same time, I like my natural hair."

"You know what Karen, I kinda have to agree. I kept quiet to be polite, but I had wondered why your green hair back in SAO seemed...off and not fitting with your features. Something about you having orange hair seems...right. It's weird."

"Meh, I get it." I pause as I turn to face the nurse that helped me walk to the room "I don't want to sound rude, but do you know when our friends will come?"

"They'll be here soon. We're just rushing about making sure all of your vitals are strong and grabbing leg braces. Honestly, we're struggling since half our staff went home. We had no idea you guys were going to be waking up when you did."

A few minutes passed and the rest of our group reunited in the common room, each of them looking almost exactly like how they did back in SAO, aside from the length of their hair. I'm surprised that Haruka looks the same since I had assumed Haruka dyed her hair like I did. I guess she took part in one of those hair treatment experiments that started in 2021 that adjusted a person's eumelanin and pheomelanin to produce more 'outlandish' hair colors with a special serum allowing almost immediate conversion from your original root color to what is your new hair. Unfortunately, I don't know how the process works exactly, it simply hasn't reached us since it's still focused around the European Union.

"If you all are okay with being left by yourselves, we need to go check on the other patients."

"Go ahead Kobayashi-san. As the eldest among us, I'll keep an eye on the kids here." As physically inept as we all are at the moment, Mamoru stepped forward to substitute the nurses' presence, so they can get to the others who are being reawakened.

With the nurses gone, it allowed us to ease up and reattain the level of casual we were far more accustomed to from all the time we spent in Sword Art Online and Alfheim Online "Heh, aside from Rika, Kazuto, and Hikaru, Senryaku is reunited in the real world. Although we've known each other for years, some longer than others-" My eyes shifted toward Haruka and Mamoru first, then towards Katsuo and Kana, both parties having known each from before the game whereas the rest of us would be considered strangers in any other circumstance "This is our first real meeting as Senryaku."

"Yeah, no kidding. Hey, speaking of Hikaru, do you think he'll be able to become a human again? I hate to think about the idea of him being kept captive in Alfheim Online."

"Not sure Sylvia. Remember that he's technically an AI-" As soon as I had started talking, I found myself interrupted when Nakamura-sensei entered the room with a few pants, suggesting that he had been running through the hallway

"Koizumi-san, I need all of you to come with me our lab. One of our lab technicians reported that one of our 3D printers has been hacked into and the adjacent computer is portraying your names."

"Uh-sure." I mutter in shock since I wasn't expecting the doctor to barge in so abruptly as I direct the others to follow after Nakamura-sensei along the pastel white walled hallways

* * *

After arriving in the lab Nakamura led us to, he directed us toward the large 3D printer at the end of the room, activated and generating something behind the tinted glass, a computer nearby projecting our names

"Huh. It really is showing all of our names, but why?"

Where we were all wondering the meaning behind our names being displayed here, Sylvia decided to take action when she voiced this question, and moved to sit down at the computer, staring at the screen with complete focus before she turned to face us

"Guys, something about this makes me think is Hikaru. He wants us to be here. I think he's being converted from software to an authentic person."

"Excuse me, but what exactly are you talking about?"

Hearing Nakamura-sensei almost immediately brought me out of the stupor of joy and replaced it with fear and concern, same with the others based on their uneasy expressions, my eyes darting toward each of my friends, hoping someone knows how to respond

Because of the delay between my glances and a proper response, it made me stutter out a weak response "Um er…"

Thankfully, I was spared from this when Mamoru stepped forward "Pardon me Nakamura-sensei, my name is Mamoru Nakasone, a close affiliate to the Uchimaya family who helped with Sword Art Online's security during service. This situation is a bit unique. You see, alongside the Uchimaya's daughter: Haruka Uchimaya here, I had an additional companion among the Uchimaya's more obscure contacts: Hikaru Murai, who sadly died during our time in the game. But because of our connection to the security systems, we were able to activate a single-run instance program to 'resurrect' him by converting into software and transferred him to my NerveGear. The Uchimayas must have modified my unit before I entered the game allowing for activation of software when I would be removed from the helmet in a safe manner, which is having the 3D printer here make him a new body. Now, before you ask, he wasn't here in Japan when the game launched, he was working with a bit of a backdoor Akihiko Kayaba-san created for us." I'm-I'm amazed at how easily Mamoru is lying here since there is not a single shred of truth in a general sense and he is doing this so well that if I wasn't involved in this situation, I would be outright believing him. He is covering his tracks so remarkably well it's scary. Especially when Mamoru and Haruka have told us that only the Uchimayas know the extent of their contact network and there's no way Haruka would tell the truth right now.

"Very well then Nakasone-san. Well, I suppose we do not need to worry anymore. I apologize for bringing you all here for such a trifle matter. The stylists will be here soon, so if you could return to room A238, we'll have one of them meet you there and begin trimming your hair."

"Thank you Nakamura-sensei, this long hair of mine is making me seem blind." Heh, just like Sylvia to make a polite remark sound rather blunt.

* * *

Real Life Standard Time: [19:45] August 4th, 2025

After we went back to the common room, meeting the stylist along the way, we were finally able to get rid of this obscenely long hair, the guys choosing to trim their hair down to their ears all over, whereas the rest of us had our hair trimmed to our shoulders or the middle of our backs, me going with the former since I don't like long hair all that much.

"Oh goodness, this feels incredible. Like, I don't have a word for how much I am relieved I can see normally."

"Yeah, I feel the same Kana. We look exactly as we did from before the game launched."

Once we were finished with the stylist trimming our hair, giving our thanks to him once he left, we saw a newcomer entering the room with a noticeable lack of the braces we are all wearing, with spiky maghony brown hair and brown eyes, wearing a uniform colored gray with clean white lines along the pockets, forming an upside down pentagon shape where the left breast pocket would be, a red and white necktie above a white undershirt, and striped pants. After taking a glance at us, he chuckles and salutes with two fingers. Similar appearance aside, I could tell from his posture that this is Hikaru.

"Good to see you guys outside of SAO and Alfheim."

"Likewise Hikaru, have to ask, how did you pull off that 3D printer trick?"

"Oh that's an easy answer Katsuo. Thank XANA for that. He tracked down this hospital when he ejected you guys, connected himself to the network here and when he gained access to the 3D printer, he used it to create me a new body piece by piece. He told me he doesn't like the idea of owing favors, he freed you guys and gave me a body this way so he's paid his due to us. At this point, XANA's long gone and returned to Alfheim, so the people here won't be able to track him down. By the way, the doctor told me what you told him Mamoru, thanks for the save. It saved me a lot of hassle."

"Don't worry about it Hikaru, I'm just repaying a favor I owe you. When things calm down, I'll call up some contacts to get you new identification since you were legally dead up until now. As far as anyone else cares anyway. Anyway guys, as much I want to catch up and all that, let's get back to our rooms so the doctors can start planning our physical therapy sessions and hopefully get us some food. I'm going to try making some calls and try figuring out what's happened during our time in the games."

"What about me? I don't need physical therapy since I haven't been in a coma like state like you guys."

"Just tag along so you can get used to your new body Hikaru." After Sylvia finished speaking, she began walking around him, her eyes fixed on him and chuckled when she finished walking "Not bad, despite coming out of a printer, you look completely indistinguishable from any other person. XANA must have had access to some damn good blueprints. Erm, just realized but what about you internally? You might want the doctors to run an X-ray to ensure you're clear. You know, your organs being in the right places."

"Good enough point I suppose. Besides, I'm going to need a lot of educational 'rehabilitation' to get by in the world."

"Yeah, but when all this is over, I want to spar with you, see how I fare against that new body of yours Hikaru."

"Well, let's get going and head back to our rooms so the doctors know where to find us."

"Sure, see ya later Karen."

* * *

Real Life Standard Time: [12:00] August 5th, 2025

A day passed and we were informed by the doctors that it is now visiting hours and the hospital was understandably swarmed with our families and friends rushing to see us all awake, the only exceptions to this event among my friends that I see are Mamoru, Haruka, Sylvia, and I suppose Katsuo in the truest sense, since Mamoru's family lives in Europe and wouldn't be able to get to Japan in such short notice, Haruka lost her foster family in SAO, and Katsuo lost his parents two years before the beta, but Kana's family is meeting both her and him, since they've always considered him family based on things those two have told us during SAO, though strangely Sylvia's family hasn't shown up yet, making me remember that Sylvia never talked about her family aside from her siblings which I always found strange but I simply chose to believe she just didn't want to talk about her family. Oh, and Hikaru too, but he's a special case since he's not even from this world but I beckoned those two to join me as I talk to my parents since I don't want them to feel left out, especially when I see Kana and Katsuo do the same for Haruka and Mamoru.

"I assume you know these two Karen?"

"Yeah. Mother, this is Hikaru Murai and Sylvia Miyagawa. They're very good friends of mine, we met in the game and we've bonded a great deal during the last few years. Sylvia and I have come to think of each other as sisters, she's saved my life so many times and never once thought of doing anything to the contrary. And it's not just pragmatism mom. Her words anyway." I then turn my head towards after seeing Sylvia's sheepish, yet proud, smile, clearly happy I found those moments worth sharing as I turn to face Hikaru "As for Hikaru, I suppose you can say he's pretty mysterious, but he's risked his life to protect me as much as Sylvia did. We revealed our identities as a way to strengthen our resolve, to ensure we make it back to reality one day and we've grown comfortable enough to use yobisute. I trust many of the people I worked with in that game, in fact, many of us began establishing 'imaginary' family units of people we knew well. My team evolved into one of these units. In fact-" I don't know why but I suddenly felt my cheeks grow hotter, immediately shifting my gaze away, though I saw my mother gave one of those mischievous expressions that suggest she knows me more than I know.

But what was supposed to be a joyous moment of reunion was ruined when a woman entered the room whom I suppose is one of our mothers, having an expression devoid of any sort of compassion as she surveyed the room, seemingly looking for someone but stops when her glance was fixed on Asuna and approached her

"Asuna, we are leaving. Now that you're awake, we can get you away from these deviants."

"Excuse me, I must be mishearing you. Did you just call my daughter a deviant?" Oh, that woman should _NOT _have said that word since it drove my mother into a frenzy and the other parents here in this room are just as furious at this base blanket statement implying we are savages to her.

"You heard what I said. Surely you know how many murderers have been released from that game. Who's to say whether any of these people are killers lying in wait."

"That is completely ridiculous! My little Kana would never kill anyone!" This time, Kana's father stepped forward to defend his daughter from this woman's insult.

"My husband is right. If you think our children are murderers to you, then your daughter is just as guilty since they were all in Sword Art Online." Kana's mother paused as she shifted toward Asuna who was utterly shocked by the comment "I hope you know I do not say this out of contempt dear."

"Do you have any idea who you are talking to?"

"A conceited judgemental woman whose ego is hyper-inflated and incapable of recognizing any sort of positive in humanity, content to degrade us into mindless beasts?" Oh god, I had no idea my father was capable of saying something like this. My mother would kick his ass if he said anything even remotely close to this to her, yet he went all out without the slightest hint of hesitation.

Thankfully, before this crisis escalated any further, the door opened as a man wearing a US army uniform, the tag on it showing his surname of Amano, came in since I presume he heard what was going on from the hallway

"Alright everyone, calm down right now. We're able to hear these arguments from different wings." His gruff tone was strict and fierce, the ferocity frightening the parents from speaking in his presence.

"May I ask why a mere soldier is interfering in family business? This doesn't concern you."

"Normally so, but this situation is different lady. Lieutenant Nichiren Amano of the VR Crimes Division, a government agency, former a lieutenant of the US army in Okinawa. If you continue along this path you seem adamant on pursuing, I will forcibly remove you all from the premises and bar you from returning. It would only thank one call." This thankfully finally made this woman back down, especially when he presented his government ID "Now, per order from the agency, we've been tasked to keep an eye on you players and administer psychological meetings at a regular basis. That and request that you attend the school we are using in Nishitokyo. It's structured to support those of you that were still in school during the game's service. We've contracted some of the best teachers in the country to work there for the next four years."

"Nishitokyo? That's far away from where we live." The sentiment my mother brought up was shared by the other parents in the room, followed by me and my friends in turn.

"Oh don't worry about that. We're securing a number of apartment complexes near the school building for the students in our web. When the SAO players finish their physical rehabilitation, the students among them will be sent to these complexes to attend the school. As for the adults, the government will be working with them to readjust them to life on this side and either get them their old jobs back or similar employment."

"W-Wait a second Amano-san, that can't be cheap to do. Are you expecting these parents to foot the bill? I won't name names but some of us aren't capable of reaching out to these kinds of figures."

"Don't worry Nakasone-san, we're searching for sponsors to help cover the costs."

"If you need sponsors Amano-san, allow me to make some calls to people the Uchimayas know. I'll get you the funding you need. The Uchimayas have accumulated a lot of favors from people all over the world and as Haruka Uchimaya's legal guardian appointed by Amelia and Hector Uchimaya, I have a degree of legal authority to make decisions like this until she becomes an adult."

Hearing Nichiren say this seemingly defused much of the tension, coupled with the negotiations he was making with Mamoru, freeing us from the awkward situation Asuna's mother starting a fight with our parents when one last person entered the room. When I shift my gaze toward the newcomer, I see a teenage girl with bronze red colored hair and gold eyes wearing a school uniform I don't personally recognize, looking about the room until it stopped onto Sylvia

"B-Big sister!" Tears running down her face, the girl ran toward Sylvia and caught her in a tight embrace, sniffling and crying the whole time.

"M-Madoka. You came." Sylvia stopped talking as she moved her hands to the newcomer's back, pulling her closer and closed her eyes, a gentle smile on her face "You have no idea how relieved I am to see you again."

"Pardon me, but why did you call Tamika-kun by that name?" This question which came from my father confused me and apparently Sylvia as well, the suddenness of this had the girl immediately stiffen her posture as she slowly turned to face my father.

"K-K-Koizumi-san. Y-You're here too? Oh no…"

"Erm, father, do you think we could move this conversation to a more private location?" I could tell the situation was getting awkward so I tried to see if I could get me, Sylvia, this newcomer, and my parents to a quieter location with fewer people. After seeing my parents nod in approval of the idea, we begin to leave the room, though I sneak a glance toward Mamoru, who nods in acknowledgement.

* * *

After entering the hospital room I had been sleeping in during my time in SAO and Alfheim, we spread ourselves through the room

"Okay, Madoka, can you explain what's going on? Why did Koizumi-san call you Tamika-san?"

"It's-It's not a story I like but…" Madoka paused, head hung down low to avoid looking any of us in the face "Big sis, you were the one making ends meet for us all this time but you were trapped in Sword Art Online. It forced me to take steps I despise. I knew it would be dangerous, but I created a fake identity for myself set at an age that would allow me to work: Mitsuya Tamika and got employment at Koizumi Designs as an accountant since I was really good with just about any sort of math, in addition to how rapidly I learn things by doing them. I went so far and crafted an entirely new personality for myself to act as to do this. Tsubasa didn't approve me of making this decision but I dropped out of school like you did big sis. I had to do what was best for our family."

"Madoka, surely you understand how disappointed I am in you right now. I sacrificed my education to ensure you wouldn't have to. Why did you not go to Yoshina? We know her family, they were close to us and helped us plenty over the years, they would've tried to help. Now, don't get me wrong, I understand why you did it. I was stupid enough to get caught in Kayaba's trap."

"I couldn't. They moved away so I couldn't reach out to them since they were so far away."

After hearing Madoka's answer, Sylvia turned her head toward my father with a face of fiery determination, which I know was a stark contrast when I think about what kind of person she was when we first met. I'm sure that shy Sylvia was the one Madoka knew, but she simply isn't that person anymore. She's confident, unafraid to take risks to an extent, outgoing towards people she knows well, even more protective than ever before. My mind flashes back to our time in Alfheim when she went out guns blazing all by herself to save Muraoka, Kazuma, Ophelia, and Airi. Despite knowing she was going to be outnumbered, she still chose to go out and fight. More than once she admitted I had a hand in helping her grow into the person she is today and it's something I find myself feeling giddy about. As far as the world knows or even cares, we would be considered as nothing more than strangers who happened to work together in an MMO, but we've thought of each other as sisters ever since we reached Algade in SAO. In addition to her courage, her kindness is not to be underestimated. She was the unofficial leader when I was out of commission and she always ensured I was being cared for when Sugou was modifying me and the others. There was one or two nights I can recall, as befuddled as I was, her being by my side.

"Koizumi-san, I beg of you, don't punish my sister for something that's my fault. If there is blame to be given, it should be on me. How long has she been working for your company?"

"She was accepted into our employment about a week after the SAO incident blew up, so about 2 years and 9 months. Nothing about Tamika-kun's, I mean: Miyagawa-kun's resume had nothing out of the ordinary. When she started working at Koizumi Designs, she had an exceptional work ethic and inspired the rest of us to work just as much."

"Father, I think I know a compromise that can work for everyone here. Clearly Madoka-san had been working illegally at Koizumi Designs and should be punished for violating child labor laws, but if we go public with this, it'd be a nightmare for both parties. I think we should keep this in the dark. You know, quietly push her away and hire Sylvia to replace her." I stop talking for a moment to face Sylvia "Look, I want to be the last person to be doing something like thi-"

"Karen, don't worry about me in this situation. Finish what you were going to say. I can take it."

Even though I had praised Sylvia's determination before, I frown this time since this is going to affect her life in a sizeable way for the next couple of years as I return my gaze toward my father, sincerely going to regret what is about to escape my lips "Hire Sylvia with a five and a half year contract to Koizumi Designs, take half of her wage to compensate Madoka-san's earnings. Doing this should forgive what Madoka did."

Madoka went utterly wide-eyed as soon as I had made my proposal to my father to forgive what she had to the company "W-What?! Big sis, surely you-"

"I accept."

"Big sis?!"

"Madoka. Remember that I have to be the one in charge of our family when our parents went missing on that cruise years ago. Any fault is mine to deal with. Any mistake is mine to own up to. Koizumi-san, I may not be as good at math compared to Madoka's rapid learning, but I'm determined to do my best. I was Karen's best fighter and second in command, she can attest to how seriously I take my responsibilities. I'll juggle the job with my school work. Hire me when I finish physical therapy. I'll do my job virtually. You can have someone monitor me during my assigned shifts if you deem it necessary." I nod to attest to Sylvia's determination to help cover for her sister. There were times where I had to leave Senryaku in her oh so capable hands, more so when I began attending the leader meetings the ALF held and her position as XO oft had her leading our 'auxiliary' team in Keiko, Rika, Haruka, and Mamoru when I worked with Katsuo, Kana, and Hikaru, and in my absence, led the entire team. Honestly, if Kayaba didn't transfer control of the Knights of the Blood Oath when he did, I would've approved her request to leave Senryaku and form her own unit.

"Well, I suppose we can give you a trial run Miyagawa-kun. When you finish your therapy, I'll have you work as an unpaid intern for one month. If we believe you a good enough worker, you will be given an official job for the next five and a half years to fulfill your contract." Despite his serious words, he had a smile on his face, quickly shifting towards Madoka "Well Tamika, I'm sorry, Miyagawa Madoka-kun, when you come of age, I'd like you to return as your own self. You were an exceptional employee, we'll be sad to see you go, but I know we would be exhilarated to have you return one day."

"I-I'll...I'll think about it Koizumi-san, but my answer will probably be no. I don't think it'd be right for me to return to your company when I lied to you."

"Fair enough. Well, this situation is resolved. Let's go back to your friends Karen, Miyagawa-kun."

"Sure. Let's head back." I raise my voice so Mamoru can hear me, the glance I gave him from earlier being a signal to follow from a distance without arousing suspicion.


	2. Reacclimatization

Real Life Standard Time: [8:30] April 5th, 2026

Ever since we were freed back in August, we've all been undergoing physical rehabilitation and mental & psychological evaluations to ascertain how much training we'll need to adapt for our lost years in reality, and the psychological meetings to deal with the death we've seen per request from the government's VR Crime Division.

Katsuo and Sylvia spent five months undergoing physical rehabilitation and two additional months of mental and educational examinations to fill us in on what has occurred over the three years we spent 'asleep'. Kana and I spent six months with physical training and a month of mental and educational examination, as the two of us weren't very athletic before SAO and needed a little more time with it. Aside from minor updates of knowledge, the only one in our group that needed extensive educational reform was our newest friend in reality: Ulrich Stern, who officially goes by the name Sylvia gave him in Aincrad: Hikaru Murai now, to blend in with society better.

Thanks to Mamoru covering for us when Hikaru was given his new body thanks to XANA, he was able to get Hikaru his identification 'reissued' since he was legally dead, stating he was born in France and was living with a relative until a few years ago, coming to Japan and was able to get in Sword Art Online during the official launch alongside him, Haruka, and her parents. Mamoru also helped as he said that Hikaru was a family friend of the Uchimayas, and thankfully, next to no one can properly investigate this since Hector and Amelia died in SAO, with them gone, the extent of contact network is known to only Mamoru and Haruka, and as her legal guardian, Mamoru has been answering any questions about the matter. However, Hikaru did need instruction a great deal since he doesn't know all that much about Japan's history since he was living in Europe in a different world outright and based on what we've been able to learn, there clearly are at least some differences from his world and ours, especially when we discovered that not only is he from a different Earth, he's from a slightly different time period since he was living in the early 2000s whereas we're in the 2020s so, in normal circumstances, Hikaru would be in his mid to late twenties at this point.

Compounding how much he helped Hikaru, Mamoru has been very helpful for us since we made it back to reality; especially with how he was able to help the VR crime division secure residence for us SAO players in apartment complexes near our school in Nishitokyo, with our new home for the next couple of years being in Kodaira, which is a bit farther away but still very close though we still have to pay rent, which was challenging considering our financial situations, but thankfully Kazuto, Asuna, and Rika told us they would do their part to help us as the eldest among us, having decided to create new accounts in a tournament VRMMO with an extremely sharp learning curve called Kolais, though I've been told that Tsuboi, his friends in Fuurinkazan and Andrew have been helping whenever they can and surprisingly, even being in third place tend to give enough to pay for all of our monthly rent combined. We had been studying a number of options but this one seemed ideal as the MMO had the ability to convert real money to in-game currency and vice versa by partnering with the Bank of America that is done through their monthly tournaments with a ratio of 3:3:4 for the players, the developers, and the bank. In the tournament, players are able to make bets on who they believe would win and the players get the proceedings from the bets which wildly varies depending on how much the crowd believes the likelihood of you winning though in comparison to our financial needs, having a record of being in within the top three can help us make ends meet.

Of course, the company that developed Kolais: Mistfire Studio, did come under fire with this kind of decision since the European Union and a sizeable amount of the United States has come to outright despite the idea of video game gambling systems of any form after egregious examples from game companies in the past decade where it was rampant, but Mistfire held fast with the statement that they modeled the tournament after roman gladiator fights which allowed bets on who people believed would be the victor and specifically stipulated that the players are informed about the process to a T and despite it clashing against profits, both the developers and the bank implemented strict conditions where only legal adults can do it, there's a limit to how much money can be committed to a bet and the RMT in general at a time is extremely regulated, and as a surprising move, the bank actually goes the extra mile to reject any suspected cases of addiction, and according to what they have revealed, they have done this twice and even personally directed the individuals toward addiction hotlines and forums. Mistfire has gone on to admit that while the tradition was two millennia old, they want the spirit of these events to be reinvented with modern day VR technology.

But Asuna pointed out that we should have a back-up plan or two just in case of situations where none of them are able to get enough bet money placed on them, so we decided to include a more stable circle of income of Sylvia insisting on adding the money she makes at Koizumi Designs to the table, and considering that she offered this herself, I'd be rude to decline her offer, Mamoru's new job with the VR Crime Division after Nichiren hired him, and how I do art commissions rather regularly, having started when I was eleven and kept a consistent rate up for nearly three years until SAO. What shocked me was the fact that not a single person I was working with was angry at me being over two and a half years late with their requests while I was kept in SAO and even insisted I keep the money when I offered refunds. I guess my reputation in the community shows I wouldn't leave work undone without a good reason. Needless to say, while I was undergoing my physical therapy, I've been working overtime to get these requests finished, deciding to go the extra mile to create three unique versions of each one as an apology when my normal policy demands that my client pay three hundred dollars for the work. I'm giving up a small fortune but I don't want to screw over my community.

After we spent time talking with our parents, they made an agreement to allow this cohabitation system for the next few years since we know each other rather well, Asuna's mother being the most resistant but thanks to Nichiren, she relented provided we obey certain clauses which are things that are just plain common sense and wouldn't betray since we do care for each other as friends and de-facto family. With this agreement, all of my close friends from Aincrad are staying in this apartment, including Kazuto and Rika which surprised me a little since I thought they'd want to stay with their families since their houses are close to the school, but argued that they want to stay close to their friends and the fact that since they're working to pay our rent, they may as well live in the building too.

Though, when I first saw it, this apartment's design made me think it was converted into an apartment from a dormitory considering the layout of the building. Thankfully, this was explained by Nichiren: It was built as a dormitory but over the years, the number of renters declined so the owner of the building decided to convert it into an apartment complex to compensate for the money used to build this place.

We've begun our school year at a special school specifically for former Sword Art Online players, as most of them are lacking a high school education. We learned when we started that the teenagers of SAO would need to attend all four years of the school, even if we're eighteen, so most of us will be in our early twenties when we graduate. I quickly found that the system at this school is a tad...strange. Even though we're all technically considered freshman, I'm in senior year and I was told I have to repeat the year four times, same with Katsuo, Sylvia, Kana, and anyone else who is at least eighteen. This school is kinda messed up, but I agree that normal schools would be far too disagreeable for us SAO players. The freshman have the typical school progression so they're lucky in a manner of speaking, sophomores have to repeat one year of their choosing, juniors have to repeat their junior and senior year twice, and seniors have to stay in the same year for four years. Because of this, my friends who are the same age as me will be in our early twenties by the time we graduate.

We also managed to get the school to take in Madoka and Tsubasa, Sylvia's younger sister and brother, into the school as well since they were affected by Sword Art Online like the players trapped inside the game, though we had to work with quite a few loopholes and the like to get them in. Alongside my Senryaku party and our associates, just about all of the teenagers and children of SAO are in this school, and a few elements they did differently helps _a lot_: For one, we don't have to take entrance exams for one to get in, all fees are waived, and we can still take entrance exams for university when we graduate. If we went to normal school, that last process would still be delayed by a span of years. Of course, not everything is sunshine and rainbows. Among all these positives, we do have to attend weekly meetings with counselors, but we all agree that this is a small price to pay for what this school offers us.

Before I was enrolled, I did have a small scuffle with the principal since he was rather iron willed about the uniforms, and since I have never been able to tolerate skirts; I did try asking if I could have the option of wearing a male uniform, though he got annoyed pretty bad, so then I was forced to play hardball which quickly turned into a special kind of battle, though I have never been the type of person to give up when I have options in front of me. I thankfully won that battle in the end and he regrettably agreed to allow me this allowance.

Unfortunately, the five of us: myself, Katsuo, Sylvia, Kana, and Hikaru actually enrolled a day late since we had to get final confirmations from our therapists for our extensive physical and mental readiness before we could enroll.

"Okay everyone, we have five new students joining our school today, you may recognize them from Sword Art Online, care to give introductions?"

"My name is Katsuo Viperia, pleased to meet you, I went by Masaru back in Sword Art Online."

"I'm Kana Shimuzu, pleased to meet you, I went by Amaterasu in Aincrad."

"My name is Sylvia Miyagawa, pleased to meet you, I went by Elena." Sylvia was rather nervous when she introduced herself, though I hardly understand why, after all, we've all gone SAO with these people through life and death. Why is she nervous about talking to people we've spent three years fighting alongside? Maybe she's a little anxious being in school for the first time in years since she had given up her education at a very early age to care for her siblings? If that's the case, I can kind of sympathize.

"I'm Karen Koizumi, pleased to meet you, I went by Solaris back in Aincrad." After my introduction, I did see some of the others glancing at me with confusion, and I think a reason is why they're wondering why I'm wearing a male uniform instead of a female uniform. I've always disliked wearing skirts and it's irksome since the female uniforms here use skirts. Even if I get strange looks, I will not wear a female uniform, I just won't.

"My name is Hikaru Murai, I'm pleased to meet you all again."

The five of us look around the classroom, and we recognize many familiar faces around the classroom, particularly Kazuto Kirigaya, Asuna Yuuki, and Rika Shinozaki, all of whom are smiling at us, apparently glad that we're in their class.

* * *

After this day, our lives at this school have been rather uneventful considering our previous lives in combat infested Aincrad and Alfheim and I'm thankful that the Japanese government is placing massive resources in front of us to bring us back into the fold in terms of education, jobs, and the like. No wonder Japan is considered the absolute best nation in the world; okay...that last one was a bit of a joke since the funding to keep us alive came from people all over the world, but it is not so about what's being done to help all of us. When we're not busy with our school work, we're often hanging out at the Dicey Cafe when we want to talk with our older friends who prefer that kind of atmosphere, the cafe owned by Yoshina Kuemon's family in Yaesu Chikagai when it's just us 'kids', who is one of Sylvia's childhood friends. While they didn't come to visit when we were freed from SAO, explaining that they simply hadn't heard it at the time, they did come during our physical rehabilitation, and Sylvia was outright ecstatic to see 'Yoshi' again but she was mortified when Yoshi revealed her childhood nickname in 'Sylvie', pleading us to never call her by that when her face had gone beet red with embarrassment, or at our apartment complex.

Early on into our education, many of us were caught off-guard with the material we are working with, Hikaru, Sylvia, Madoka, and Tsubasa being the worst case because of their circumstances in their backgrounds but some of us were able to get by to an extent, learning what to expect after a month passed

"Continuing with our discussions of japanese history, what was the battle that was considered the most important for stability and cultural development here in Japan?" There was a pause among my fellow students in the classroom, wracking their minds to try figuring out the answer when I raise my hand "Koizumi-kun?"

"I believe that was the battle of Sekigahara which was the origin to the formation of the Tokugawa shogunate in the year 1600 which lasted two and a half centuries, or otherwise known as the Edo period."

"Very good Koizumi-kun. Yes, from the years 1600 to 1861, Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate which gave Japan precious peace and tranquility from constant civil wars, and many other such benefits, though it did result in Japan becoming more isolationist during this period."

When our morning classes had ended, we decide to change things up for what we do for lunch whereas the other students are in the classrooms or the cafeteria, our group decided to go to the roof since it's a warm sunny day, currently only being me, Katsuo, Sylvia, Kana, and Haruka though Kazuto, Asuna, Rika, and Keiko are coming soon since they were late getting food.

* * *

Real Life Standard Time: [12:00] May 5th, 2026

"Hey, good job on that question earlier smartie-pants." Rika just sneered at how easily I seemingly one-upped them back in class.

"Hey, not my fault I study unlike you guys. Considering how often you go into Alfheim Online, is it any surprise your grades are so bad? School just started last month and aside from me, Asuna, Kazuto, and Rika, you guys are at a C average. I'm only giving concessions to Sylvia and Hikaru. Asuna, I really think we should start doing mandatory study sessions after school to get these slackers back into shape."

"I'm glad we think alike Karen."

"Oh god, we're doomed if these two are uniting on this! Rika, back us up please!"

"Oh no, I don't think so Katsuo. I'm not fighting those two. I know better than to. You're on your own."

"Katsuo, be serious about this. Madoka and Tsubasa have better grades than you guys and they just reached adolescence. We're adults. No offense Sylvia, trust me, I'm glad they're succeeding, but this is unacceptable."

Hearing my unwavering determination in the matter had the affected party sigh in defeat as Kana turned to face me

"Karen, would you be willing to make a deal of sorts with us about this?"

Hearing Kana say this led me to tighten my expression in disdain since I'm not sure if I'm going to like what she's going to say "Maybe. If it's stupid, I'm not going to show any kind of mercy."

"Okay, listen, Ymir is starting a continuous single-elimination tournament next weekend called Ragnarok. It'll be active on the 10th, 17th, and 24th of this month. The team that wins this tournament will receive the title of Alfheim's champions and receive a full set of Valkyrie-class weapons and armor free of charge tailored to the individual's battle styles ahead of the rest of the players, which is a higher rank than Ancient class. Ymir is allowing sixty four teams to participate. If you agree to join our team, we'll participate in those study sessions."

Hearing this proposal didn't exactly provide any kind of amusement since I haven't been active in VR, aside from my dives into Tirella, unlike the rest of my friends and I'm sure this is being used as an excuse to get me back in. While I don't hate VR per say, especially since I got to become friends with these amazing people because of it, I simply don't share their fascination. In fact, the reason I joined SAO in the first place was because of the side-application where you could design your own equipment since I've been into art since I was a young child and actually made it a profession. Truth be told, I initially had zero interest in doing any sort of leadership, I wanted to be a shopkeep and sell my custom-made equipment to the other players, but of course, when Kayaba trapped us in SAO, obviously I had to change my priorities. Those people needed leaders to keep things under control.

I was worried that my skill dulled because of everything I had to deal with in SAO, and to my dismay it did in fact sadly decline since I haven't done it in over two years, but I was surprised to find that in exchange for that, I've been given a lot of unique perspective and material to work with. In fact, a few weeks ago, I had managed to draw a watercolor painting of Asuna and Rika's old SAO avatars in Floria and they were utterly shocked at my skill since I had to recreate the image from memory.

"Considering what's going on Karen, you should give it a try. Asuna, Tsuboi, Rika, Keiko, and I formed a team in the tournament. It's actually a great motivator for us. When we focus on battle, it really helps clear our minds of distraction. And there is a person among us who really needs this kind of treatment." I try to avoid shifting my attention towards Sylvia when Kazuto mentioned this since she spends the entirety of the school day in the library working for Koizumi Designs, having negotiated this agreement with the principal provided Sylvia can maintain a specific grade point average, she does her school work in our apartment, she almost has zero free time to do what she might want to do since we just about always bring her along with us.

"Kazuto, I am _not_ distracted. Yes, I'm busy since I juggle school after neglecting it for most of my life, my contract with Koizumi Designs, and spending time with all of you. Before any of you start feeling guilty, I choose to spend time with you guys of my own volition. If I ever wanted to have time to myself, I'd make no secret of it. I...I think of you guys as family to me. And trust me, I know Madoka and Tsubasa do too, even if Madoka is too shy to express her joy at having such a large family around and Tsubasa...not knowing what it means to have a full family. Speaking of which, Keiko, I'm glad you've been there to help them when I can't, I've even had Madoka consider you a sister too. Anyway, you all know things about me I've kept hidden from Madoka and Tsubasa. It shows how much I trust you all. But do not insult me and call me distracted when I'm still sound of mind. Yes, my body's still a little sickly from all the crap I had to do when I was a child, but I'm stronger both physically and mentally thanks to you all pushing me forward. Thanks to Kayaba. If I hadn't been in SAO, I probably would've stayed that shy timid fool pushing herself to exhaustion to care for her siblings, but me being there changed my very being to the smallest detail. I need to thank you in particular Karen, especially when you made me your second in command of Senryaku. You made me realize how important it was to keep myself sound of mind and body while giving my all."

"Sylvia, you give me far too much credit. You were the one who strove to improve yourself. All I did was give you a push and the rest of us kept you from falling." This, in addition to what Sylvia had said just now, made me sincerely smile since I didn't really expect Sylvia to be so direct about her feelings on this matter, especially when I see the others feel just as honored as I am. Granted, I feel the same way as her in how I view everyone here, especially with my regulars in Senryaku: Katsuo, Sylvia, Kana, and Hikaru, since I fought alongside them the most but I just don't have the fortitude to be so upfront. In a traditional sense, the only ones in this quintet with a regular family is me and Kana but we've grown close enough that we can see each other as brothers and sisters willing to do whatever is needed for each other "Anyway, I suppose I'll accept the deal. With that in mind, what are the specifics of this tournament anyway?"

"This tournament allows for members of different races to work together so we're not forced to have say a full Sylph team. Submitting a team requires two people minimal and luckily Katsuo and I were able to form a team before the limit got reached. Kazuto, Asuna, Kazuma, and Ophelia have as well. Anyway, to officially form a team, you have a twenty four hour reservation period to get a team of five into the tournament roster. The layout was set up by the administrators: Three warriors to fight in the battles, one equipment manager to maintain our arms and armor, and a single strategist to give us direction. We actually brought Sylvia and Hikaru into the team this morning and we're hoping to get you too so the core team of Senryaku is together." After I had asked this question, Kana explained enough about the tournament to fill me in since she explained plenty before now.

"Okay, and what name did you give us? Let me guess, Senryaku?"

"Nope. We considered it mind you, but we wanted to pick something more symbolic and memorable. While each of us was technically part of different guilds: You were with the ALF, Katsuo and Keiko was with the Knights of the Blood Oath, Kana led Silver Valkyrie whereas Rika was a member, and Hikaru and I were with the Divine Dragon Alliance. See, we wanted to get us five into this team with a name that defines our bond so we decided to name our team: Knights of the Blood Oath, though the system made our logo Team Knights. But among all the teams we've seen, the two teams we're scared of the most right now are Unity and Wolf."

"Who are in those teams Sylvia? And why did you guys name those teams above the others?"

"Kazuma, Airi, Ophelia, Zekken, and a Salamander corporal called Horizon are in Team Unity-"

"And Kazuto, Asuna, Tsuboi, Keiko, and I joined up to form Wolf." Somehow it's just like Rika to interrupt, making the rest of us sighing in disbelief, save Sylvia glaring at Rika for interrupting her so abruptly.

"Now I see why you're worried, those guys are crazy strong, but I'm curious...what role are you in that team Keiko?" I shift my attention toward Keiko, wondering where she fits into the dynamic.

"I'm actually the strategist. We actually were unsure whether to have me or Asuna in this position but after some experimenting, we decided to have Asuna as a fighter and I'll work as a strategist."

"Heh, I know you'll be a tough opponent since you were a solid member of Senryaku's 'B' team who worked with our 'freelancers' or subsidiary members in Haruka, Mamoru, Kazuto, Asuna, Rika, and other people on a case by case basis. But don't think that we'll be easy to take down if we end up facing each other. Remember that Senryaku's core quintet was considered Aincrad's best unit. We have strong synergy that is tough to match." With this boast over, I take a moment to deflate myself as a new question comes to mind "Do you guys have any specifics on Team Unity's formation?"

"Yeah, Kazuma, Zekken, and Horizon are the fighters for Unity, Ophelia is the equipment manager, and Airi's the strategist."

Hearing Hikaru say this so straightforwardly only amplified my uneasiness a little. It reminds me that while we use yobisute among each other since we're close friends, Hikaru uses it all the time, even among people he should be using honorifics for, which makes us have to explain that Hikaru is foreign and is unaccustomed to using honorifics.

"Damn, Airi's has become my true rival when it comes to strategies since my mother has been teaching her too, if we have to face Unity, that could easily become our toughest battle in this entire tournament. Not to say that you guys are weak by any means." I say worriedly, the fact Airi's the strategist is bad enough but, if they have such powerful people in their ranks, they could easily become an unstoppable juggernaut. It's worrying that Unity has Zekken in their ranks, especially after how strong she was back during our Grand Quest expedition.

"Nah, I get it. If we have to face someone who has the same kind of experience as you, we'd be in trouble. If any of us want any chance of beating Zekken, we'll really need to work out the kinks in our OSS skills. Especially when you consider how well she did in that whole Grand Quest debacle. I'm glad I was able to recruit her to help us when we were trapped in SAO."

Hearing Kana talk about Zekken's talent in addition to the new addition in the OSS system, or Original Sword Skill, feature that was implemented in a recent Alfheim Online patch. It allows players to create their very own Sword Skill. So far, I only know of a very small group of people that have actually managed to create an OSS because of its crazy insane difficulty, truthfully, it'd be easier to fight Blade Dancer, the Skull Reaper, and Geocrawler _together_ than to create an OSS. Despite that though, Hikaru, Kirito, Asuna, Katsuo, Eugene, Sylvia, and I have managed to actually make one of these.

* * *

While Katsuo, Sylvia, Kazuto, Asuna, and Hikaru began steering their conversations toward Zekken and the OSS feature, Rika, Keiko, Kana, and I decided to shift our attention to other matters as we eat. We might become enemies in the tournament, but we're still friends in reality, where it truly counts.

"Hey Karen, how have your art commissions been faring in the past few months?"

"Eeh...it's been slow Keiko. Being trapped in SAO damaged my reputation among the art community, but I'm getting by. Besides, I'm having the most fun doing art in Tirella. I love that the developer allows us to develop our own environmental art if we so wish instead of the core assets."

"Yeah, that's no secret Karen. You lay down on the sand in the beach with a tablet and pen in your hands, and the tails on your Kitsune avatar wagging in joy."

"Hey, I made all the art in the server by scratch for free. I normally would've been charging 20,000 yen an hour for this kind of thing. You had better be freaking grateful."

"Oh come on, you're exaggerating."

"Rika. I've drawn enough environment art to fit two and a half square kilometers at this point.* For one person doing it by hand, that's a freaking miracle. I did not use any sort of procedural generation either. So everything in our server is hand-drawn and unique and I take great effort to keep things realistic."

"Karen has a point there you know. She's been using her NerveGear to have her mind alert in Tirella when she sleeps. I'm surprised that Mamoru was able to have our NerveGears redesigned to have that kind of functionality, I can only hope that if we decide to upgrade, he can do the same with the AmuSphere. But I will say, something about being in our server at night underneath crystal clear skies and stars is just so calming."

"I think we should get going everyone, we have class in ten minutes."

Nodding in acknowledgement to Asuna's words, we quickly take our trays back to the cafeteria for cleaning and return to our classrooms, Sylvia splitting up with us to head to the library to do her job with Koizumi Designs through their private Tirella server.

* * *

Real Life Standard Time: [17:00] May 5th, 2026

After finishing school, our usual group had quickly shrunk because of clubs and circles, with Kazuto, Rika, Asuna, Kana, Madoka, and Tsubasa staying behind at the school, leaving me, Hikaru, Katsuo, Haruka, Sylvia, and Keiko as we head back to our home, particularly from how the school's kendo club for Hikaru, Katsuo, and Sylvia, the art circle for me, and the calligraphy circle for Keiko, having chosen it on a random whim, don't have any meetings on this day of the week. Along the way, Hikaru and I split up from the group since we are on shopping duty this week as we walk into a small department store a few blocks away from our home that is usually devoid of people at this time of the day, which utterly surprises me since this store normally offers nearly 50 percent off all of their food by now, they start their discounts at 2 PM at 15 percent. When we entered the store, we each grabbed a cart as we start loading them with ingredients as I happen to recognize a familiar face in the dairy section, his appearance being largely similar to any japanese salaryman, despite being an office executive, except for the scar on his right cheek

"Daisetsu-san!" Even though Chomei had revealed his real identity to us in Alfheim, cultural norms here in Japan demand that I give some degree of reservation when I would talk to a person much my senior, even though we were very close comrades-in-arms back in SAO and ALO, especially when we gave our real names to each other.

"Ah. Koizumi-kun. Have to say, I'm glad to see you before I leave."

"Eh? Leaving?"

"Yep. My doctor signed off on my physical rehabilitation this morning and I'm heading back to Shiogama in Miyagi tomorrow. I've been away since 2022. My wife, daughters, and son want to see me come back home. I'm just here to buy some local treats my wife wants me to get."

"Well, I'm glad you're heading back to be with your family, but I'll be sad to see you-Wait, you have a son?" That last part confused me since Chomei had talked about his wife and daughters, but never about a son.

"Heh, yeah. Turns out the missus had him while I was trapped in that hellzone of a game. He spent his first few years of life not being able to spend any sort of time with his father. I hate Kayaba for doing this to so many people, but we can't change the past. All I can do is try to make amends and be there for my family here and now."

"Trust me, I'm glad your family is reuniting, but after everything we've been through in those games, I'll be sad to see you leaving us. A lot of the people we were working with are no longer here in Tokyo."

"Yeah well, we have lives and families to get back to. But don't think I'm just going to forget everything that's happened. You guys have my contact information so if you ever want to talk to me, I'll always be willing to lend an ear. Not to mention how I'll join you guys in your community Tirella server whenever I can. If you need my help in person, I'll come back here as soon as I possibly can. You know that I'm slow to give trust to others, but you've earned mine after everything you've accomplished in Senryaku and before its establishment." After he finished speaking, he shifted his gaze toward my half-filled cart of food "Shopping for food by yourself?"

"Oh, no. Hikaru is with me. He's getting some vegetables for our meals this week."

"Ah, nice of the lad to help a lady out. Tell you what Koizumi-kun, how about you let me pay for your groceries as a bit of a friendly gesture. I have savings that has been building up over the last four years and I want to use it to help people I care about. I don't think the missus will be too annoyed about my decision and if so...well, screw it. I'm going to help my friends, no matter who I tick off." Gesturing me to move, I began walking alongside him as I wandered through the store to grab enough ingredients, checking off item after item off of our shopping list, to feed thirteen people.

"Heh, you were always rather abrasive commander. Guess you needed to be that way to deal with the fact you led Aincrad's main battle guild."

"Yeah. They were a bunch of bastards, but they were _my_ bastards. I could trust them to handle the frontline while I handled the administrative side of guild leadership. Honestly, I liked it since it reminded me of my job here in RL. Executives like me typically work with strenuous conditions and when coupled with my workaholic personality, thrive with it. But since MMOs are rather different in nature, I wanted to add variety to the usual day to day grind by holding guild events, do some scenic sightseeing with my officers to keep our morale up and unified, things like that. Hell I remember inviting you guys on a sightseeing tour on floor 32 when the frontlines were being paralyzed on floor 60, especially when your unit was being pushed to your limits. I could tell you all were exhausted and needed R&R. Many of the Aincrad players saw you as practical immortal demigods because of your strength and your zero percent mortality rate, but I knew you were all human beings. You needed time off as much as anyone else. More so than anyone actually considering how often you were deployed to the front. Remember when we were surveying floor 75 before fighting Skull Reaper? You were almost killed and that horrified us."

"Yeah, the battles were really escalating in difficulty. Even units that had boasted our level of mortality were succumbing to loss. But I'll be honest Daisetsu-san, I'm kind of glad you asked us to do some R&R that time. We ended up using the time to celebrate my birthday. I had been doing it in private before then. It really helped strengthen our bond."

"Yep, we noticed your team's resolve skyrocketing around then, especially with how we've had a lot of people thinking Miyagawa-kun outright replaced you as leader of Senryaku. I have to admit, I was surprised at how she was able to maintain your standards, especially when you were springboarded into being the leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath."

"That was most certainly a crazy moment for us all." I decide to take a break from talking with Chomei as I found myself in the meats section, carefully looking through the displays around me, inspecting a few that have been given a 45 percent discount "Okay, I'm liking the prices but I need to be sure the quality is still good. A is-But B offers-. Urgh, the fact that one of Aincrad's best strategists is being bested by a pack of meat is degrading!"

My disdain toward the subject clearly amused Chomei since he clearly was stifling his laughter, chuckles escaping him "Heh, the great Solaris doesn't know how to shop for food. I am _so_ glad I decided to come here tonight. Here, let me pick you something good. I've done shopping like this since I was fifteen. I know what to look for."

* * *

Real Life Standard Time: [18:00] May 5th, 2026

With Chomei's help, we finished our shopping and at his insistence, our carts were filled with enough food to last us two and a half weeks that he paid for in addition to what he originally came to buy and even offered to drive us home, which we had to accept since we had far more groceries than we anticipated. Upon leaving his car, we both bowed sincerely and gave our farewells since this may very well be the last time we see him. After we unpacked the groceries we brought in onto the shiny bronze counters adjacent to the appliances, we see Keiko in the kitchen as she's on cooking duty tonight. Generally we have cooking duty on rotation for all of us, our assigned chef changing day by day though Hikaru is the only one barred from the responsibility since he actually set our kitchen aflame twice and he's only allowed to join our roster if Asuna herself vouches for him, and when it comes to Tsubasa and Madoka, since we're contracted to stay here for four years we've come to an agreement that we'd allow them to join our roster in two years as long as they let Asuna tutor them. Though in terms of general ability, it scales with Asuna, Rika, me, Keiko, Mamoru and surprisingly Katsuo, since he never exactly gave off the impression he cooks, at the top followed by Sylvia, Kana, Haruka, and Kazuto when I consider skill and willingness to cook hand-in-hand to the point where we often have to pair up when they're put on assignment.

"Hey Karen, Hikaru, good timing. You just caught me in a bit of a break while I wait for some of the meat to simmer. I'll put those away to give me something to do."

"If that's what you want Keiko."

"By the way, why did it take you so long to get back? You two never take this long to do shopping. Were the two of you having 'fun'?" Keiko remarks rather snidely, having a cat-like smile on her face.

"K-Keiko!" I exclaim with a very angry glare, not finding what she said funny in the absolute slightest, and I can easily feel my cheeks burn red out of both anger and embarrassment. Honestly, I'm shocked she would resort to such a crude sense of humor since it's uncharacteristic of her.

"Nehehe~" Keiko lightly sticks her tongue out, laughing quite a bit about this.

"Keiko, that was not funny." As usual, Hikaru is calm when he's not fighting, and that's something I've come to respect over the last four years. But that calmness is concealing a rather intimidating aura, with me feeling a little of it leak out intentionally.

"Uu...Sorry guys. I just wanted to have a small jest. Anyway, I'm almost done cooking. I just need another hour."

"Hey Keiko, you know where Mamoru is? I only saw six pairs of shoes at the genkan." I ask, wondering where Mamoru is. Usually he's here around this time of the day.

"Actually, I'm not sure. He usually works from home. Maybe he had to check on something related to the Uchimaya family? I'm honestly kind of guessing."

"I see. Well I'm going to head into Tirella. Give us a wake-up call when you finish alright?"

"Okay." Keiko happily nods before turning her attention to the stove.

"And the fire extinguishers are next to the fridge. Be careful not to start a fire again." I smirk playfully. If she was going to make a quip at me, I'm going to do the same to her as payback.

"Karen! That's not funny!" Keiko shouts, looking back at me angrily since I insulted her cooking to the point where I indirectly implied that it's on par with Hikaru's.

"Neither was what you said to us when we got here."

"Karen, let's stop it here. Let's go."

* * *

Hikaru quickly pulls on my arm and drags me toward the main sleeping quarters of the building and he then lightly pushes me up the ramp to the second floor since we reserved that floor for us girls since there's more bedrooms compared to the ground floor, before walking toward his room. It's pretty obvious that he was trying to stop a potential fight considering his actions. I then walk into my light teal colored bedroom and I see that my NerveGear isn't where I kept it before, making me feel a little confused. I then notice an unopened box on the center table and when I go to check out the box, I see an envelope on top of it and I quickly notice Mamoru's signature on the cover. I open the envelope and find a handwritten letter in it

'_I imagine you'll notice that your NerveGear is missing. I took them this morning after you all left for school and if you want to know; I got word last night that the customized AmuSpheres I ordered months ago finally finished the night before. I left when I got word to retrieve em for you guys and you can find them in these boxes. These puppies have the same memory size as the NerveGear and I've taken the liberty of transferring everything in each of them to these customized AmuSpheres. I made sure that each AmuSphere has only one person's set of data. It took the technicians I asked to do this months to complete the requested customization. I'll hold onto our NerveGears so you don't need to worry about them being melted for parts like most people did with them. I'll be back some time tonight so save some food for me and don't you buggers even think of drinking the alcohol. Mamoru._'

"Mamoru, you are such an idiot." I chuckle, imagining Mamoru laughing in amusement at the end of that letter from the get-go, especially since we don't keep alcohol in any way after we did our little 'experimenting' back in SAO which ended horrifically. It forced us to assemble a rather untested rotation in Hikaru, Keiko, and Rika with Haruka and Mamoru as back-up for a few days since Katsuo, Kana, Sylvia, and I were considered indisposed because of the alcohol. I then open the box to find an AmuSphere like Mamoru said but colored dark purple instead of the standard silver and even has a special crest with a spear embedded on the right side. I run a finger over the crest and I recognize the material of it after taking notice of its monochrome silver color "Woah. Is this metal...titanium?! This kind of customization must have cost a pretty penny for Mamoru. I love the craftsmanship of this. It's so elegant."

I startup my computer, synchronize the AmuSphere's wireless connection to my computer and I then activate it after putting it over my eyes and laying down on my bed "Link Start!" With this activation code, I log into the virtual network, entering the private Tirella server I bought from the developer that I share with my friends living with me here, and to further increase its security, with help from Kazuto and Haruka, I included a three layer password system and even went so far as to include virtual private network service encryptions to further make this lobby private since we have a lot of personal data tied into this server, most importantly our records of SAO and ALO and most critical of all, our credit information since we do online shopping fairly often here in this server and we don't want this information stolen from us.

After entering the game proper, finding myself on the beachfront region I designed and left Shiroyuki where I was at, sheltered from most of the environs by the foliage and furniture scattered about. I see Hikaru, Katsuo, Haruka, and Sylvia in the distance with their unique non-human avatars specific to this game since Tirella allows an extremely large list of species you can choose from the humanoid elves and dwarves, in addition to the conventional human, to the more exotic lizardmen and kitsune, to the fantasy-esque angels and demons, heck, you can even play as androids and golems after recent patches. Whereas I had contemplated making my avatar that of an angel to create a dynamic with Sylvia since she's playing as a demon, I ultimately decided to make my new character: Shiroyukihime a Kitsune, which ultimately is like a regular human aside from the tails on their lower backs.

Furthermore, since I was able to customize the character instead of transferring Ashikaga to this game, Sylvia convinced me to make Shiroyukihime look 'prettier' than I normally make myself in games with character customization, since I'm relatively masculine in how I like to look. I just don't like the idea of wearing dresses, skirts, things like that. I mean, sure, I'd make exceptions for important occasions, but that's another matter. With Sylvia's suggestion at the time, I made Shiroyuki, as I like to call her, have shiny silver hair, her eyes being gold on the right side and silver on the left, with her nine tails being colored beige with some white splashed about the fur.

As for the others, Hikaru chose to be a lizardman with blue scales and green eyes, standing at a rather astounding 6 foot 5 when he's only about 5 foot 4 in reality, the contrast having given him challenge, even to this day; Katsuo decided to be a dragonkin with red and gold scales, the same coloring on his wings, with blue eyes, his character's height being the same as Hikaru's, thus giving him difficulty adjusting to the different heights; and Haruka playing as a mermaid with gold hair and green eyes. Funnily enough, despite these exotic appearances, we're all wearing rather run of the mill clothes, though at the moment, Haruka's wearing a rather simple bikini since she's out swimming in the ocean, which Kazuto and I programmed to be about 30 feet across and deep for the time being to allow for plenty of swimming to be done, whereas Shiro's clothes are the most unique since she's wearing a shrine maiden robe though I didn't want it to be standard red and white so I changed it to primarily black with monochrome silver trimmings.

What surprises me is the level of realism that Tirella includes in this game's systems, particularly its day and night cycles effect on temperatures since it's not a core feature of the Seed which required the one person developer: an American based indie company called Epsilon Cubed to contract volunteers to help build the systems when he abruptly attempted to convert the game from Unreal to the Seed, especially when Epsilon had spent twelve long years trying to get into the video game industry as their eight games were all considered commercial failures with sales in the triple figures, rarely exceeding a mere thousand. Tirella was to be Epsilon's final venture and if it failed, they would've thrown in the towel and quit the industry outright.

The release of Tirella, to their surprise, exploded in popularity among gamers who like those kind of casual simulation games and multinational businesses interested in maintaining connections across continents through the use of their very inexpensive subscription based servers that companies would rather request access over than pay for their own networks. The surge of popularity required that Epsilon Cubed rapidly expand the size of the company from one to three hundred and fifty to maintain the servers and implement new features. What was going to be the company's final attempt ended up as a springboard to great financial stability as the monthly subscription based server system, in addition to how people could rent multiple servers at once, allowed them to finance future games with a dedicated team of developers while also providing updates to the game.

After adjusting to the senses belonging to Shiroyuki, I walk to the beach chair and lean against it as I quickly see Haruka jumping into the air and landing in the water headfirst before gliding back to the edge of the beach sand, resting against it as she faces me with a rather giddy smile.

"Good to see ya Shiroyuki."

"Same to you Otohime. Heh, it's funny we call each other by our avatar names when this is a private Tirella server meant for just us."

"And what's the problem with that? Besides, you were the one who insisted on the voice changing feature in the server."

"Oh yeah." I sighed a weak, discontented sigh, remembering that when I created the server, Kazuto and Ophelia were able to incorporate new code allowing for a variety of features exclusive to this server, one of them being that voice changer which we use to make our demihuman avatars sound more unique and fitting to the perception when they took various sound clips from anime, video games, live-action television, and even international animation shows, and used them as a guideline to establish 'race' voice packs, though we've had to get creative with the more obscure species "Anyway, I take it that you guys are using your new AmuSpheres?"

"Obviously. Solarion took our NerveGears. While the japanese government ordered all units destroyed, he snuck ours away in the chaos of our reawakening and said he would send them to a trusted technician in my family's network for disassembly when he could contact him, but that's essentially a load of BS. In actuality, he sent them to my family's vault in Germany. He just wanted to wait until our AmuSpheres were ready before sending them away. We value our NerveGears and I know we wouldn't want them destroyed."

"Yeah, we've spent three years of our lives locked in those helmets during Sword Art Online, Alfheim Online, and currently, all of our time spent in Tirella. I certainly don't want the proof to be dismantled." This proud feeling was put on hold when I take a second glance at Sylvia, sitting at a bench table a short distance away, before looking back toward Haruka "Is she doing alright with her assignments? She told us not to worry, but her time is _really_ spread thin and her education is rather...impaired."

"I wouldn't discount her so soon Shiroyuki. Yes, her lack of a formal education shows, but she has enough street smarts to get by. Unfortunately though...she is struggling...badly. But if anything, it's clear that Niatila's family has a gift with adaptability even if she believes otherwise. According to what I've heard from your father's employees, Pandora-chan adjusted to her persona in days since Tamika was very composed and dedicated to her craft, Trendath-kun's grades are improving every week, and Niatila herself adjusted to the workload demanded of her."

"Interesting thought there Otohime. Mind helping her a little bit? Despite my thoughts from earlier, you _are_ one of our better students."

"Sure." Nodding and giving a thumbs up, Haruka opened the menu and toggled her mermaid avatar's human form, the tail transforming into human legs "Going to do some Tirella art?"

"Not this time. I got a new request from an old client, with a rather remarkable four hundred thousand yen commission, she was always very generous paying me, but even this is fairly extreme. I can only guess that she's built up her business enough that she can make millions. But on the other end of the spectrum of her being generous, she was extremely demanding. Her condition was that she is kept in the loop as I develop the art and if she doesn't like anything I'm building for the design, she vetoes it and insists on me changing it. She asked me to design a 3D character with some specific appearance details. Not going to lie, I'm reluctant to jump into something this complicated so soon but the money is good and I liked the designs I made back then. Besides, I want to get back into the trend. It's difficult for me to do 3D but the payment I get is generally worth the price."

"Ooh, interesting. Who's the client?"

"Elwing or rather: Miharu Yoshikuni-san. I only really noticed a little while ago after a little digging. We're both using internet aliases so I'm fairly sure she doesn't know my identity since I'm using the title Celestia. When I see her in Alfheim, I'll let her know. Anyway, go help Niatila with her homework Otohime."

"Sure, best of work with your drawing Shiroyuki."

* * *

Real Life Standard Time [18:30] May 5th 2026

After hearing the call from Keiko saying that dinner was ready, I saw everyone log out of the server as I follow suite, heading down to the dining room where Keiko had prepared several plates of stir-fry, gyudon and sata andagi on the side that Kana and Katsuo had taught us to make since they had been missing Okinawan cuisine, having wanted to eat it a little more often if the option existed, even if it's a side-dish like this. I will admit I'm not opposed to the variety that this causes in our dinner palettes. And as soon as we had assembled around the table, I heard the door open and saw Mamoru and the others walk in, quickly joining us at the table

"Hey guys, welcome back. And where exactly were ya Mamoru? You're usually always here for your job."

"Out on an assignment. A couple of us were asked to act as guards for Professor Nanairo Arshavin when she was making a presentation about VR technology."

Hearing Mamoru bring up this individual had Rika, Kazuto, and Haruka spring up with surprise.

"Y-You got to meet _the_ Nanairo Arshavin?! Mamoru, that's amazing!"

Despite the clear surprise on their faces, I couldn't understand the excitement that Mamoru had instigated in us, seeing the others expressing similar expressions ranging to completely lacking information on the individual in question to borderline confusion

"Erm, Haruka. Could you tell me who this person is since you seem to know him or her?"

"Professor Nanairo Arshavin is essentially a younger Akihiko Kayaba of sorts. She's one of the leading experts in VR technology now that the forefather of the field is gone. She's young at twelve mind you, but she's gifted. With her supporting VR, we're sure to be able to advance our hardware and software exponentially and with far quicker speed."

"Okay, I think I get it...maybe." I gave a sheepish half-answer in response to Haruka's more enthusiastic comment about the girl as I turn toward Mamoru "Are you allowed to say what her presentation was about?"

"We don't know much truthfully. All she said is that she's developing a system called Cloud Brain that she hopes to submit to Ymir as an optional plug-in. If you want my opinion, I think it's designed to help improve the AmuSpheres with additional full-dive and potentially even augmented reality capabilities."

"Karen, I know that we're curious about this, but surely there's a better time to discuss it."

"S-Sorry Asuna. Right. Itadakimasu." I weak raise my hands in apology as I quickly turn heel to give grace for the food in front of us. Even to this day, I've caught myself straying from cultural norms in Japan on occasion because of the time we spent in SAO where the effort of collecting food was beyond trivial. Being in such a world of death made cultural politeness seem like a waste of time.

* * *

A/N:

Tirella character names:

Karen - Shiroyukihime (Shiroyuki) (Kitsune)

Katsuo - Kershu (Dragonkin)

Sylvia - Niatila (Demon)

Kana - INTEGRAL (representing the International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory) (Android)

Hikaru - Altosk (Lizardman)

Haruka - Otohime (Mermaid)

Mamoru - Solarion (Roc)

Madoka - Pandora (Fairy)

Tsubasa - Trendath (Dragonkin)

Kazuto - Yoru (Elf)

Asuna - Asa (Elf)

Rika - Melusine (Golem)

Keiko - Sereia (inspired by the 58th element on the periodic table: Cerium) (Mermaid)

*To clarify how much Karen has drawn in the private Tirella server they all own in comparison to other games, that 2.5 square kilometers roughly equals one square mile, which is about the size of Assassin's Creed Unity.


	3. Reunions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys, I’m about to give some bad news about something I’ve been contemplating for the past two or so years now and it’s something I think is going to be permanent this time around. I’m going to try to keep this simple and say: I don’t know if I’m going to continue any of my stories starting next year onward. I’ve been in a horrible state of mind for the past two or so years and it’s severely affected my writing ability and my passion. I’ve had to cancel three stories: Code Divinity the first time and then Reaper’s Vigil and Horizon of Ash because I quite simply have been severely burnt out twice and it soured my opinion over them. I’ve had to take a three to six month hiatus both times to recover mentally and ever since, it’s been getting tougher and tougher for me to write anything I’m working on anymore. If I do decide to write any more stories, it’s likely going to be a single entry that I’m gathering research material for as we speak: The Rising of the Shield Hero. This, or I'm going to focus exclusively on the original stories I've been planning for the past year.
> 
> But like I said, I'm not sure if I'm going to do any of this anymore. It's difficult for me to find any joy in this subject unlike when I first started back almost 6 years ago.

“Ash! Come on, we really need your help for this!” Amidst the silence, one single voice broke through the darkness, followed by the sound of chains being broken.

“H-Huh…?” Karen paused for a moment as she tried to pry her eyes open to see an elf with straight black hair and gray eyes wearing a black trenchcoat with white trims “K-Kirito?”

“Yeah. Yamakage helped me break your chains after Yui found you guys. But we need to act fast. XANA and Cardinal are stalling for time but Sugou’s got Guardians deployed in the facility to repulse our attempt to free the rest of the SAO players. Ulkaios, Lizbeth, Klein, Agil, Leafa, Izanagi, Yugana, Okamoto, and Zekken are keeping watch until we can free the rest of you. Then we’ll go find Asuna and get all of you out of here.”

Despite hearing Kirito’s words with crystal clarity, for some reason, they failed to register in Karen’s mind as she began to slump to the ground, being caught by Yamakage before falling down

“T-Thank you Yamakage. I feel...weird. Lightheaded. I need; help moving about for a little while. Until my head clears up.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re just woozy from being unconscious so long. I am too. Here, let’s set you against a wall for a sec or two, let your body unwind. Kirito, let’s get to the other cells.”

After being set down against the wall, she soon saw three of the newcomers approach from where they had been watching over the surroundings, the Cait Sith among them catching Karen into a tight hug

“Oh Ren-chan! I thought I’d never get to see you again!!”

“Huh? A-Airi-chan?”

“Good to see you Karen-chan. It’s me Ophelia, and Izanagi there is Kazuma.”

As soon as the duo joined Airi in embracing Karen, they are pulled back by Zekken “Come on guys, I know you miss your friend there, but we need to get moving. We need to save Asuna before we’re overwhelmed by Guardians. Ashikaga, ready to go?”

“U...Um. Yeah.” Karen weakly responded as she opened her menu and equipped her spear “W-Who are you by the way?”

“I’m Zekken, the absolute sword of Alfheim Online. Kirito there recruited me, Leafa, Izanagi, Yugana, and Okamoto to help him, Ulkaios, Agil, Klein, and Lizbeth in this mission.”

“I...see. I’m not sure how much good I’m going to be to you guys in my condition.”

“That’s fine. We’re not expecting miracles.”

Once the group reconvened with the prisoners, finding Karen, Yamakage, Minatoya, Krisaga, Mikuya, Pulse, Silica, Nanak, and Morita among them before they are stopped by the arrival of four Guardians that broke through the defensive line Ulkaios, Lizbeth, Klein, Agil, and Leafa were attempting to maintain

“Oh crap, that is _ not _ good!!” As soon as she witnessed the defenders sent to their backs, Zekken immediately charged into battle with dual swords drawn, falling into a spiral dance and slashing at the guardians with such rapid speed that it seemed like three of them were slain in mere moments with the survivor being taken down by Kirito running it through with his sword.

“Are you guys okay?!” As soon as the coast was clear, Kirito ran to check on his friends who were knocked down to the ground, Lizbeth being the first to recover.

“Y-Yeah. They were just stronger than I thought. Ugh, here I thought being a part of Senryaku meant that you’re among the elite but here I am, getting my ass kicked like it’s nothing.”

“Okay, either these were just stragglers or we’re losing ground. Neither possibility is good for us. We need to move and find Asuna. Kirito, take the lead and show us where to go. I’ll cover the rear flank.”

Acknowledging the need for speed being brought up by Zekken, the group reunited and began dashing forward, the freed SAO players lightly gripping their heads while trying to keep pace with their friends, Pulse being the one to speak up about his condition

“Agh...my...head. Why does this...hurt so much?”

“I know you’ve just been awakened but we need you guys with us. Hold strong for a little while longer. Once you’re free, you’ll get the treatment you need.”

“I...know Lizbeth. But this is a challenge.”

Upon finally escaping the facility proper, necessitating the need to take detours with the discovery that XANA’s Creepers and Tarantulas fighting against the guardians along the way, found themselves climbing up the tree root pathways toward the birdcage in the distance. Upon finally reaching it, they are quickly ambushed with a portal manifesting in front of them making them appear in a wide open space composed of pure darkness with only two distinct sights in front of them: an unconscious Asuna being restrained in chains and Sugou Nobuyuki’s avatar: Oberon in the distance, leading the group to quickly assemble to keep him suppressed, while Kirito rushed to Asuna’s side

“Let her go Sugou! We have you outnumbered.” Knowing he has the upper hand with his friends supporting him, Kirito howled at the man with his one demand.

“Very well. I know when I have been outplayed. You want your precious wife back? Then I will release her.”

Opening the menu, Sugou pressed a few buttons as Asuna is released from the chains but at the same time, Karen and the other freed SAO players felt the clouds in their minds become abnormally thick, their conscious selves being enveloped and overwhelmed as the irides in their eyes rapidly faded as Asuna, Karen, Yamakage, Minatoya, Krisaga, Mikuya, Pulse, Silica, Nanak, and Morita abruptly turned their weapons against Kirito, Ulkaios, Zekken, Kazuma, Lizbeth, Ophelia, Klein, Airi, Agil, and Leafa respectively, the suddenness of the attacks making it difficult for them to establish their guard against their friends, making the strong formation they had assembled shatter.

“Karen, what the hell are you doing?!?”

With the sight of these loyal friends having turned against one another, Sugou laughed at the display “Care to change your words Kirigaya-kun? You’ve lost your edge.”

“What have you done Sugou?!”

“What I’ve _ done _ is implement the final touches on my plan. Your friends there have had their wills completely sundered. They are now nothing more than puppets who obey my every command. And their first order is to kill you.” After answering Kirito with remarkable egotism since he has successfully managed to enslave the rest of the SAO players he had in his grip, he turned his head toward Karen and Ulkaios trapped in battle, struggling to block Karen’s spear thrusts, and proudly grinned “Ashikaga-kun, do not hesitate. That boy, no, that _ machine_, betrayed everything I have attempted to build. Kill him.”

“As you wish Master Nobuyuki.” While her voice was the same as normal, it lacked much of the energy that made her an individual, ironically making her resemble a machine that Sugou wanted her to kill in Ulkaios.

“NO! Karen, snap out of it! You’re stronger than this! Fight his control! KAREN!”

“She can’t hear your words anymore pathetic AI. None of them can. Do not let his false words deceive you.”

With the order being given, Karen’s ‘resolve’ was strengthened as she quickly swept Hikaru’s legs, knocking him down to the ground and see Kirito’s group slowly being overwhelmed out of concern borne out of the desire not to fight their friends who they have spent years fighting alongside, the others in Leafa, Kazuma, Ophelia, and Airi quite simply having difficulty matching the strength of their opponent, aside from Zekken easily able to match Katsuo punch for punch as her strength seemed equal to Karen’s group. A trifle matter since it would not take much longer for her to become overwhelmed.

“Well done. I’m going to bring their pain absorption levels down to zero. Finish him.”

Keeping Hikaru still by restraining him to the floor, Karen drew her spear back and aligned it with his heart which made Hikaru begin to tremble with fear

“Karen, please, don’t do this!!!”

Unfortunately this plead fell on silent ears as Karen drove her spear forward with the clear intent of piercing his heart.

* * *

Real Life Standard Time: [02:43] May 6th, 2026

Moments before this final attack was completed, I immediately sprung up from my pillow and screamed in pure horror, panting with uneasiness and sweating from anxiety from the nightmare I had been kept in as my mind was drifting back to when we were trapped in ALO as Sugou’s prisoners

“T-That was…!” Struggling to establish a sense of coherence from the shock of the nightmare, my fright only escalated when I heard a series of rapid knocks on the door.

“Karen, I’m coming in!” Without waiting for an answer, Asuna rushed into my room as her eyes went toward every direction, the sight making me lightly shriek in shock.

“A-Asuna?! What are you doing here?” Despite my voice being raspy from slumber, I nearly jumped in shock from Asuna barging into my room, my eyes darting downward for a moment and immediately hid under my sheets with an additional shriek, my head exposed and facing Asuna.

“I heard you scream so I thought you were in trouble!”

“A-Ah...S-Sorry Asuna. I just...I just had a really bad nightmare. W-Was I really that loud?”

“Not exactly. It’s just that the walls between our rooms are paper thin.” Asuna paused as she glanced at the wall dividing her room from mine “Mamoru did say he was going to contract someone to do a one-over on all the walls for a short-term solution after getting approval from the owner. He’ll do a full renovation when our rental contract ends in 2030.” Looking back toward me, Asuna tilted her head slightly in confusion “Why are you still under your sheets?”

“Erm, well. I’m-I’m-I’m...er...Asuna, are you familiar with Emperor’s new clothes?”

“Emperor’s new clothes?” Asuna stopped to think before her eyes opened wide “So, you’re-?”

“Yeah…”

“I see…” Asuna nervously chuckled and gulped as she turned to face the door “Are-Are you going to be able to get back to sleep?”

“Doubtful. I’ve never been the sort to be able to fall asleep if I wake up in the middle of the night. I think I’ll go into Tirella and do some artwork.”

“Karen, I don’t think it’s healthy to be doing full-dive so often during the night. Would you be willing to have a bit of a distraction of sorts to clear up your mind?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Rika has been trying to get me to watch some new anime collection she bought a while back. I think watching something will help you unwind.”

“Should I be worried about that? Rika has some disturbed tastes when it comes to her anime. After all, Higurashi is one of her favorites.”

“I checked beforehand. It’s safe. It’s about a mangaka who ends up adopting a cat as his roommate.”

“I’m not sure if I’ve heard of that title. You know what, sure. Just let me get dressed.”

After quickly changing into my blazer when Asuna walked out to give me some privacy, I left my room and began walking with Asuna down to the living room

“Do you mind if I ask what your nightmare was about? I’ve never heard you scream like that before.”

“Erm...well. I-I was dreaming about when we were trapped in Alfheim. Sugou succeeded in his plan and enslaved those of us trapped within and forced us to fight Kazuto and the others. I had almost killed Hikaru.”

“So that’s what got you in such a panic. But why now of all-” Asuna paused as her expression indicating that an earlier conversation flashed in her mind “The tournament Kana mentioned. I wish they would have a little more tact for their friend. Karen, is this a reason why you’ve been averse to going back into Alfheim?”

“A bit. If I may be brutally honest, the whole situation in SAO forced me to change what I wanted to do. I joined SAO to be a shopkeeper, selling my custom-made wares to the other players. I’ve done the same thing in the last couple of games I was in, I love being a merchant. But I had to change gears since we needed leaders. In fact, I secretly resented the fact that people would go so far and sing my praises whenever I attained victory. It was built on a foundation I hated.”

“I never knew you thought like that Karen. How far does that resentment go exactly?”

“Mmm...don’t get me wrong, I’m not the kind of person who would let others suffer just because I want to be spiteful. Everything I did, I did knowing the fact. What would happen if I did the things I did.” The question made me pause as I felt tension building up from this train of thought “I’d rather not talk about this anymore Asuna. Right now, I just want to unwind and see this show Rika got.”

“Well...okay then.”

After entering the living room, we put on headphones and synced it with the TV as she started up the anime in question, watching two of the season’s episodes but I quickly felt sleep overtake me, struggling to maintain awareness, hearing Asuna talk, albeit it being rather blurred from my fatigue, same with my sight as I felt my eyelids open and close.

“You really must be exhausted since you’re enjoying this show and wanted to see the rest.” Asuna gently smiled at the gesture, since I’ll admit I don’t exactly have much in the way of a friendship with her because of how we never had any extended interactions until rather recently. Asuna clearly must have put a stop to things when she stopped the show and felt her gently remove the headphones from my ears because of how I heard the noise stop.

* * *

Real Life Standard Time: [06:00] May 6th, 2026

After what felt like moments after Asuna and I fell asleep on the sofa, I felt my body being gently shaken with a voice accompanying it

“Oi, time to wake Karen.”

“Mmm...Sylvia?”

“Yep. C’mon sleeping beauty. Katsuo’s making breakfast.”

As we slowly regained awareness, stretching their arms to help wake ourselves up, we quickly heard the sounds of everyone up and about in the large interconnected room of kitchen, dining room, and living room

“Why were you two sleeping here in the living room by the way?”

“Oh, no reason. Right Karen?”

“Right.” I answered Asuna’s confident smile with one of my own, leading Sylvia to turn her head in confusion.

“Er, sure. Well, let’s go eat. Katsuo’s making tamago kake gohan, miso shiru, and a light serving of tonkatsu.”

* * *

Real Life Standard Time: [12:45] May 6th, 2026

After returning to the classroom when we grabbed our food, eating inside since the heavy rain discouraged anyone from eating outside, resulting in the students either eating in the cafeteria like many of my friends or combining their desks like Asuna and Rika, aside from myself sitting by my lonesome, soon seeing Rika sitting down in front of me

“Whatcha doing all alone boss?”

“Look Rika, we’re bundled as a group almost all the time. I just want to have some ‘me’ time. Besides, this custom of pushing desks together to eat as a group confuses me.”

“How exactly? It’s one of the most basic practices you learn in school.”

“I didn’t have a traditional education. My parents were against the idea of conventional schooling, or rather my father was, since he was enrolled in what he called a garbage-tier school back in the US that didn’t teach him anything worthwhile. He actually believed that they were so wrapped up in the idea of shunning talent in favor for training factory workers that they actively went so far asto hinder his development, so my parents decided to have me home-schooled online in Pirapara.”

“Wait, you were enrolled in Perennial Paradise?”

“You know that MMO?”

“Kinda. I had friends talk about it at my old school. But isn’t that MMO pretty expensive?”

“Look, I really want to eat Rika. I’ll answer your questions later okay? Consider it a favor for helping introduce me to that anime you showed Asuna. I haven’t been interested in any anime this much since I watched Ancient Magus Bride three or four years before I went into SAO.”

* * *

Real Life Standard Time: [16:00] May 6th, 2026

After finishing school and returning home with Kazuto, Asuna, Keiko, Kana, Katsuo and Sylvia since the others are busy with their clubs, I felt my phone ringing with an email notification since I had set a custom alarm for such things years ago

[To: Celestia

Subject: Character Artwork

Celestia, in regards to some of our previous conversations where you said that the software you use for your art is being discontinued and will have many of its features being stripped within two weeks time, I am glad to say that some of my supporters on my financial platform have informed me of an interesting piece of software that meets the criteria you have for your artwork, and to my surprise, it’s an open source engine: FlareX. You can seamlessly use it to make 2D or 3D art, it allows tablet usage, it has a rather intuitive interface according to some demonstrations I’ve seen from the developers, and it can even integrate with VR technology like the AmuSphere. Unfortunately it’s one of the priciest systems I have ever seen at 75,000 yen a month, though I’ve been told it’s for a fairly wide license that anyone in the network can use with no holds barred, but I’ve been informed that the software has only recently been released to represent a brand new generation, to be used for industry professionals. The price is difficult for me to tolerate but I’ve spoken with the developers and they have said that they will lower the price to a more reasonable 35,000 yen by the end of the year. If you’re interested in the system, let me know and I’ll try to persuade the dev team to license it to you for the lowered price. But something they’ve been adamant on is that aside from bug fixes, plug-ins and the like, all development beyond the initial tools will be reliant on the community side since they've said that they want FlareX to be tailored to the individual. In fact, when I conveyed your artistic style in accordance to what you have told me to the team, they confided that work that would take you two weeks could be done within two days time at the absolute most provided you are diligent. And I’m sure we both know the answer to this one. I’m including the links to these videos here in the email so check them out when you can and see if you’re interested. Follow up with me afterwards with your answer because I’d actually like to talk about some of my current requests and some other things. I’m including the password to my private Tirella server in this email, we can discuss the terms there.

From: Elwing of Vortsune Reviews]

“Okay guys, I’m going to head to my room. Homework was light today so I’m going to focus on my art. Wake me when you finish cooking Katsuo. Once we eat, we’re going to start our study sessions.”

“Got it.” The mood was far from amused from a fair amount of the group, their tones of quiet admittance to the prior condition I had made as the group began to split up.

Walking through the hallway, I shot up a quick response to Miharu’s email

[To: Vortsune Reviews

Subject: RE: Character Artwork

I’d need to think about this Elwing. Remember that I’ve been using this software ever since I was a small child. It’s been a piece of software that’s been in use for decades and I never anticipated it would be shutting down. And so abruptly to boot. Besides, I’m way too used to freeware, converting to an open source system would be way outside my skill set. I’m an artist, not a programmer and having that software would entice me to acquire tools I’d have no way to acquire.

From: Celestia]

* * *

After sending her message, I opened the door to my room, subconsciously staring at the wall dividing my room and Asuna’s after the incident earlier this morning, starting up the computer and watched the videos sent to me, being thoroughly impressed by the contents within the demonstration and coming to the same conclusion Miharu had earlier mused: even with the basic tools, my workspeed would be exponentially improved but the cost to purchase the license to use the software is far beyond my budget. Once I finished the videos, I launched the browser for Tirella and laid myself on the bed as I put my AmuSphere over my eyes

“Link start!”

Once the command was given, I found herself in the same dark space before seeing myself in the lobby that connects the various servers together. Knowing that I have business with Miharu, I input the password needed to enter Vortsune’s private server but was met with an error screen

[**Error. Incompatible character scripts detected.**]

“Huh? My character can’t enter the server? Oh right. Kazuto and Haruka implemented custom scripts for our server when we made our characters so we can’t make them cross over unless the other server have that same script, but it’s so deeply ingrained that they’d have to be designed from the ground-up for it. Guess I’ll just make a new character.” Pulling up the menu, I pressed the option to create a new character, eschewing the creator since I don’t want to waste time in the mode right now, deciding to just upload one of the custom characters that a client had requested of me for use in an indie game a few years back: a woman with long purple hair held in a ponytail, supported with a large bow, shiny blue eyes, wearing a corset that leaves the stomach exposed with detached puffy sleeves covering her arms, dark brown shorts, and black stockings covered with stylish metallic cuisse and greaves, naming the character Celestia to help present myself to Miharu. As an artist, I’m willing to design anything within what I specifically said yes or no to in my profile but as my own person with my own sense of morals and code of ethics, I’m actually fairly against a fair number of the sketches I’ve done.

* * *

Real Life Standard Time: [16:30] May 6th, 2026

[Location: Vortsune Tirella Server]

After creating my new character, I found myself in the server that belonged to Miharu, appearing in a large amphitheater on a hill overshadowing the nearby regions with the nearby buildings being of Ukranian architecture, clashing with the amphitheater being similar to the Roman architecture of Verona Arena in Italy. The sights overwhelming my sense of wonder, I slowly turn my body to see what is around the building when I see a woman with azure blue hair and eyes wearing a white dress suit, the design being another of my character sketches that I’ve done for Miharu, my FoV identifying her as Elwing.

“Evening Celestia. I take it you're the artist I’m working with?”

“Need I even give an answer to that? This is a private password protected server Elwing.”

“Haha, you got me there. Anyway, you caught me at a good time since I asked my guests to take a break. I’m actually going to resume my quote end quote review in about ten minutes, how about you join me?”

“Are you sure? I’m not really a part of your review show.”

“Don’t worry about it, just watch from the side.”

“Well, okay then.”

With my mind made up, I joined Miharu as she walked up to the edge of the amphitheater, stopping as I see her vanish through one of the open spaces, the colors showing that she had opened a portal. Following after her, I quickly find that it had brought the two of us to what resembles a recording studio, though I quickly see that we’re not alone as I see four others scattered about, their avatars being extremely bare in terms of looks which suggests that they only recently created them for the purpose of this review Miharu is doing, but something that caught my attention are the tattoos on both their right hands and their cheeks as I see the shape of winged dragons with a forward and backwards K unfold at the edges, with numbers included from 1 to 4, the sight in my FoV revealing their names: the male with red hair and eyes as Hifarn being 2, the male with blue hair and red eyes as Adalard being 3, the female with blonde hair and blue eyes as Ishtar having number 4, and the last having pink hair and blue eyes as Macha having number 1.

‘_That pattern; it can’t be-! I need to see if this is a coincidence or if those four are actually-_’

“Elwing, are we going to get back to the interview soon? I’m getting antsy.”

“Don’t worry Adalard, I just went to get a friend and check on some of my renders. We can start as soon as you guys are ready.”

“‘Bout damn time. We’ve been waiting for it for nearly an hour!”

“Erm, I’m sorry for interrupting but could I ask you all one, no two, questions?”

“Oh for crying out loud!”

“Adalard, be nice. What do you want to ask us Celestia?” The girl with pink hair: Macha placed her hand on the redhead's shoulder to attempt to placate his anger, soon joined by the other two, as she turned to face me with curiosity clear in her expression.

“I’m curious about those emblems on your hands and faces.”

After hearing my question, all four shifted their gazes toward their right hands for a moment and smile as they returned their glance toward me

“These were made by a very dear friend of ours, we unfortunately lost touch with her four years ago. We’ve tried getting ahold of her in whatever way we could since she just abruptly stopped talking with us but nothing’s worked and her parents wouldn’t talk to us. Call it a strange sense of nostalgia, but we go out of our way to include these emblems as often as we can.”

I wasn’t wholly convinced of this idea since I didn’t fully recognize their voices but after hearing the pinkette talk of their missing friend, this was the one whose voice I can recall, noting how little it has changed during the last four years, which belongs to one of my childhood friends, way before I met Kazuma, Ophelia, and Airi, and of course, my current group of friends from SAO: Milikana Hiratasuka. As much as I’d like to, I think it’d be better if I ask the deeper question in more restrained locales as I turned toward Miharu

“You mind if I ask what you’re reviewing this time?”

“Not at all. It’s not exactly a regular review since this isn’t a regular game, but the developer of Perennial Paradise asked me to cover it and would sponsor the episode since they’re rebranding their product with the Seed in preparation to evolve into a full educational platform for all ages. Because of the way Pirapara was made, honestly I’m going with this shortened version since it’s a mouthful saying the full name casually, I can’t exactly go in and look through it, and I doubt any parent would allow a random adult near their children in situations like this so I’m going with the next best thing: interview teenagers or fellow adults who have been in Pirapara.”

Hearing Perennial Paradise being mentioned made me wide-eyed since it was such a nostalgic blast from the past and all but confirmed the thoughts running through my mind as I take a moment to reflect on their voices and sort through the differences as I finally realize the identities to these four after a bit of process of elimination. My first friends that I had met through Pirapara: Yamato Chiba, Ebina Nishimura, Milikana Hiratasuka, and Murata Masayuki, their avatars being Hifarn, Ishtar, Macha, and Adalard. Needless to say, their voices had changed a good deal because of how much time had passed of us growing in adolescence, I only became aware of this possibility because of Milikana’s familiar voice and the existence of the emblem I made for these four and myself as we spent time together hanging out.

“Elwing, do you mind if I join in this one? I actually was enrolled in Pirapara too so if you want an extra opinion, I’d be willing to offer my take.”

Hearing my question surprised all five of them, Miharu cupped her chin with her hand

“I didn’t exactly expect getting another person but you know what, since you’re here anyway, sure. Since you don’t know how I’m doing this Celestia, I’m going to interview you guys separately then all together today. Anyway, you’re next Hifarn. Once I’m done, I’ll call for you Ishtar and then you Celestia. Considering you all had asked that you could explore the server while I was working with Adalard and Macha, would you mind waiting in the green room over there since I want to get this finished relatively soon? It’ll be the first door on your right in that hallway.” Miharu paused as she points to the right, which leads to a hallway connected to the structure “I’ll call for you when I’m ready to start your session.”

* * *

Obliging to her request, the four of us walk toward the aforementioned room and enter it, finding it to be rather ornate with a shogun’s palace aesthetic

“Oh wow, this place is amazing! I’ve never seen anything that looks this beautiful!”

After seeing Macha squeal like a schoolgirl as she dashed about the room, inspecting anything and everything with unrivaled focus, Adalard chuckled as he put his hand on his hip

“Haha, anything would look beautiful when you’re a child of poor rice farmers Macha.”

This comment clearly ticked the girl off since she instantly spun around gave a death glare that rivaled something I’d see in Shingeki no Kyojin “You’re a jerk Adalard!”

“Hehe, he’s not exactly wrong kitten.” Despite her words supporting Adalard’s teasing, Ishtar serenely smiled as she gently rubbed Macha’s head “By the way Celestia, you said you were enrolled in Pirapara? Based on the pitch of your voice, you seem close to our age. Were we perhaps in the same class?”

“You could say that Ishtar.” I pause as I open the menu with my right hand and open the memory storage inside my AmuSphere, pulling up the folder containing the PNG file of the original version of the watermark logo that I make on every one of my drawings to help prevent theft: the very same pattern these three have on their avatars and apply a customized version of it to myself that has the number 5 layered into the design, having designed six of these drawings, closing my eyes for a moment as I felt the proudest of all smiles crack through the composed personality I had cultivated for the last four years in Sword Art Online and Alfheim Online “Or rather Ina-chan. Mili-chan. Masa-kun.” As I spoke these words, addressing them by the names we used as children, I felt a river of tears flowing down my face now that I’ve been reunited with some of my first friends, of course I’m sad that the group’s not complete since Makoto was part of our group from those days and he died in SAO protecting me from Hisae.

Needless to say, the three of them doubletook in surprise, their bodies slightly leaning backwards, clearly processing the revelation I unloaded onto them.

“Ina-chan? Only one person has called me that and that’s-”

“Karen-chan!!” As soon as they recognized who I am, Macha, or rather Milikana, rushed forward and caught me in a tight hug.

“Damn, I never expected to see you here of all places Itsu! Where the hell have you been for the last four years?! We were afraid you flat-out abandoned us. Especially when your parents refused to talk to us.” Hearing Murata-kun call me Itsu only served to amplify the nostalgia of our shared past, especially since he always found ‘Itsutsu’ to be an irritating tongue-twister when we were kids, so he would often call me Itsu as a surrogate since I was the fifth person to join our little group of friends back in Pirapara.

“Sorry about that guys, I’ve actually been- been in, uh-” I found myself stumbling over my words once Milikana finally let me go as we go to sit down on chairs in a corner of the room, since I wanted to convey what had happened to me and the others while not disrespecting our woes but failed to come up with something that could work and just decided to go for broke “I’ve been stuck in Sword Art Online the last couple of years. I was freed back in August and I’ve spent the last eight months in physical therapy and the last month has been dedicated towards acclimating to things. Catching up on things I’ve missed.”

“You were one of the SAO victims?! That’s horrible!”

“Yeah, I won’t deny that Ebina-chan. Anyway, I take it Hifarn is Yamato-kun?”

As soon I mentioned Yamato’s name, their expressions warped with unease as they all looked away from me.

“Erm...Karen-chan, about Yamato-kun. He uh...Yamato-kun actually goes by Yae-chan now.”

“Eh?” “Eh?” “Eh?” I had rapidly looked in each of their directions, first Milikana, then Murata, and then Ebina; confusion overwhelming me as I’m trying to comprehend what Milikana told me but failed to reach any answers that make sense to me “Er. Enlighten me? I’m in the dark here.”

“Karen-chan, this is something that happened about three and a half years ago. Putting it very simply, Yae-chan doesn’t really identify as male anymore, she opened up to being transgender.”

I paused a moment as Ebina explained the situation in such a way that it was clear for me to understand the matter at hand “O-Oh. Well, I’m glad he, I mean Yae-chan, was comfortable enough to reveal this. Considering you four are still hanging out, I take it you’re still on good terms with Yae-chan? Oh boy, that’s going to be tough for me to get used to.”

“You’re joking right? Do you really think our friendship is so frail that it would break because of something like this? Don’t get me wrong, we were caught off-guard in the spur of the moment, but Yae-chan’s our friend and that won’t change. Of course, I do joke that I feel outnumbered with three girls to one guy, or rather, four girls to one guy now that you’re back, but we take it in stride. Though a _ certain someone _ really loves pointing that out and making me suffer for it-” Murata paused for a moment as he shifted his gaze toward Ebina, who put her arms behind her back and whistled rather nonchalantly, clearly trying to shift blame, making me silently laugh at the display ‘_Heh, some things never do change._’ “But her idiot parents refused to accept her and even went so far as to disown her when we all came to talk to them and even called us heathens for accepting the LGBT community. Needless to say, Yae-chan decided to leave and live somewhere where she’s treated right.”

Within a mere moment, Ebina continued where Murata left off “Yeah, she’s been living with my family over in Shizuoka actually. You know Yae’s family is strict on their traditions while mine is more contemporary.”

“So uh…” I pause as I scratch the back of my head, trying to adjust to this sudden discovery without making myself seem like I’m disgusted with the decision since I value the happiness of my friends over societal norms, within reason “Did Yae-chan go all the way or is she unchanged physically?”

“No, she said she’s not comfortable with the procedure so she’s only technically at a cross-dresser level. But trust me when I say that she’s girlier than I am and you know how obsessed I was back in the day.”

“Let’s talk about something more cheerful Ebina-chan. What have you been doing with yourself Karen-chan?”

“I’ve actually been getting involved with VR games lately. I’m in Alfheim Online and of course, here in Tirella. I actually came to this server to talk with Elwing about my artwork.”

“Ooh, I’ve heard a lot of good things about Alfheim. In fact, we’ve actually considered converting our accounts from Asuka Empire.” Ebina paused as she began to frown “Our guild has been getting warped as of late because of some borderline psychotic woman who was made the new leader. See, guilds in Asuka need to pay a monthly fee of in-game currency to stay active which only the leader can do. But as soon as she was made leader, she disappeared for nearly a month and many of our fellow guild members began to leave since they feared the guild would be dissolved from inactivity, but the day before the month ended, she abruptly returned and screamed bloody murder, calling the people who left traitors who didn’t care for the guild, swearing that she’d stain those people’s reputations and ensure they’d never be able to join any other guilds. Needless to say, we’re...off put by this. We’re looking to join a different MMO that’s Seed made.”

“Well, you guys are welcome to work alongside me and my friends.”

“We might just take you up on that offer Karen-chan. What’s your avatar name there? We’ll try looking for you.”

“I go by Ashikaga in Alfheim Mili-chan.”

After hearing my answer, Murata chuckled as he gave a thumbs up “Got it. You going to be there after the interview?”

“Not really, sorry. Once the interview is over, I’m either heading to my server or logging out, depending on if dinner is ready by then.”

“Man, you’re lucky that your parents are such good chefs, getting to eat such good food every day. I’m lucky my uncle is patient enough to tolerate my parents’ horrible skills and is willing to cook for us.”

“Er, ‘bout that Ina-chan, I actually don’t live with my parents right now. I’m living in a converted dorm close by the school I’m attending with a couple of friends that I made in the game.”

“Oh, you’re not being homeschooled anymore?”

“Nope. I was going to be enrolled in a conventional school but I got stuck in SAO. One of the conditions of attending the school is-” My conversation was cut short when Miharu and Yam-I mean Yae opened the door.

* * *

“I’m all done with Hifarn’s interview today. Ishtar, you ready?”

“Yeah, I was just busy talking with the gang here. Wait, why did you add today to that Elwing-san?”

“I don’t want to force you guys to spend a long time in the server in case you have things to do IRL. Besides, I have my own backlog of projects I’m working on so I can only spend up to two hours here. Because of that, I’m going to spread out the interviews so you all don’t feel forced to rush your answers. I know we’ve exceeded that time-frame already but...I’m making an exception today since I really want to have a group session in the review and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get you all together this easily.”

“Okay, fair enough. Let’s go.”

After seeing Ebina leave with Miharu, Yae walked past her as she joined us, sitting in the chair where Ebina was

“Ishtar said you were talking about stuff?”

“That we were Yae-chan.”

“M-Macha! You can’t reveal our real life names in games like this!! Especially around strangers!!!”

“It’s not revealing if the so called stranger already knows us, right?”

“I would say so Murata-kun.”

“H-Huh?”

“The others filled me in on their names, and I’ll only say it once, I promise, but: It’s good to see you again Yam-kun.”

“...Yam...kun?” Yae paused as her face slumped down in thought, cupping her chin with her hand before looking back up “Karen-chan?”

“Yep, I’m glad the gang’s all together again, well, aside from Makoto-kun, bless him.”

Whereas Ebina, Milikana, and Murata were ecstatic at the fact I revealed my identity, Yae was reluctant to acknowledge my presence and even refused to face me as she kept her face turned away from me

“Hey, what gives Yae? Did you seriously not hear that Karen-chan is back? Why are you ignoring her?”

“What makes her trustworthy considering that she vanished for four years? Even if we knew her as a child, there’s no guarantee that she's the same. For all you know she doesn’t even accept the fact that I’m different.”

“You dare-!”

Murata immediately jumped up from his chair with his expression filled with seething rage as he stomped toward Yae, the display frightening both her and Milikana which forced me to action as I placed myself in-between them, facing Murata

“Murata-kun, calm down, I understand where Yae-chan’s coming from on this one. Remember that you only just now learned why I was incognito since 2022.” After seeing Murata weakly nod in acknowledgement, I turn to face Yae “I didn’t disappear because of you coming to grips with your identity. I was trapped in Sword Art Online all these years, comatose in a hospital with my consciousness basically trapped in that death game. Ask my parents if you don’t believe me. Now that I’m free, they’re more likely to tell you guys. If that doesn’t sway you, I have contact info of several people of the VR Crime Division. They’ll tell you straight up.” I take a moment’s pause as I deeply inhale and exhale “Look, I don’t exactly care about the LGBT community. It is a blanket encompassing a wide variety of personalities of the people within. _ What _ I care about is a person’s personality and how they treat others.”

I stop and wait to see what Yae has to say about the matter as her expression takes a turn for the worse as she simply sighs and begins to walk away “I’m going for a walk.”

“Yae-!” Murata snarled out of anger at the sight, reluctantly stopping at how Yae walked out of the room “Sorry about that Karen-chan. I’m sure she’ll come around sooner or later. Remember that her parents treated her very badly when she came out and the three of us were the only ones who supported her at first, that and well, you were trapped in SAO around the same time so she might not understand. But erm, do you think you’d be able to get us in touch with your contacts in that division? I think that’d be the easiest way to prove you were telling the truth because...well...as much as I want to believe you, it just seems a little convenient.”

“It’s fine. I wasn’t expecting any of you to believe me considering the circumstances. Pick a time that works for you guys and I’ll try to schedule a meeting.” As much as I wanted to convince myself of my solidarity, I’m secretly hurt that she thinks that I was like those who shunned her because of what happened.

* * *

Once Miharu finished all of the interview questions that she had compiled for us today, I quickly saw both her and Yae log out of the server, leaving me with Ebina, Milikana, and Murata.

“So, do you have any plans right now Karen-chan?”

“I’m heading back to my server for a while Ina-chan. Would you guys want to tag along?”

“Can we?”

“Sure, I just can’t let you have access to our files. We’ve got a lot of private information there. We’ve got it locked down with passwords and VPN. Do you guys want me to give you some textures for your characters?”

“Hehe, I always loved your artwork Karen-chan. What do you have in mind?”

“Hmm.” I pause as I cup my chin as I focus my attention onto the trio when Milikana asked me this question, my thoughts focusing on some recent drawings I had been commissioned to make during my time in physical therapy “Mili-chan, Ebina-chan, do you two have any complaints against nekomata?”

“Can I see it before giving my answer?”

“Sure thing.” After hearing what Ebina had said, wanting to see what I had created first, I opened the folder with all my pictures and swiped an image with a pair of nekomata to them, one with violet hair and eyes wearing a dull white and pink dress supported with a capelet and the other being blonde with blue eyes having the exact same outfit, only colored white and blue as I swiped it towards the two of them so they can see what I had drawn.

“Dibs on the blonde one-!” “Dibs on the purple haired one-!” Ebina and Milikana immediately stopped in their tracks as they stared at each other and laugh at how sync they are with their own tastes.

“Do you have any male drawings?”

“Erm...a couple. I’m going to be honest, the ratio of male versus female drawings I’ve done is about 1 to 20ish. It’s a little strange that women are more common in drawings but I digress. I think I have a perfect picture though. I was actually commissioned to design a protagonist for a small ADV visual novel from an indie developer. I have to add a couple more details to the design but it’s good enough for Tirella’s character creator to recognize.” I quickly pull up the image which contains what could be considered a stereotypical rpg protagonist with spiky brown hair and eyes with phoenix themed armor, at least, the armor being what will be in the final design and pass it to Murata.

“Haha, I feel like I’ve played four games with this kind of protagonist. You heading to the server now?”

“Yeah, meet me there, I’ll give you the password so you can get in, that and my spawn coordinates.”

* * *

Once we all log out of the server, I change to my Shiroyuki avatar and enter the Tirella server my friends and I use, finding myself on the beach at the edge of the water where I left her when I was last online, her shiny hair glimmering in the reflection of the sunlight and the nine tails on her lower back wagging in sync with my enthusiastic thoughts though I’m quickly roused from my thoughts by a familiar, well semi-familiar in truth, voice not far away from me

“Welcome back Shiro.” I turn my head to face the source, finding Niatila laying down on a hammock connected to two trees at the edge of the beach, wearing a rather minimalistic two-piece striped bikini colored black and red that revealed much of her figure. I’ll admit that in some way, I’m glad she’s not lacking for confidence, I simply wouldn’t be caught dead wearing anything of the sort, I don’t have the bravery to do so.

“Hey Mya.”

“Okay, why do you always call me Mya? I’d understand Nia, but why Mya? Is that supposed to be some sort of cat pun I’m not understanding?”

“I call you that because it’s humorous. If it bothers you, I can stop and call you by a different nickname if you want.”

“Nah, it’s not that it bothers me, I just didn’t get the context of-” Niatila paused as her eyes trained themselves past me as she jumped from where she had been laying down “Okay, who the hell are you three?! How did you get into our server!!”

After hearing her speak of three newcomers, I immediately turn to face the trio for a moment to confirm that Ebina, Murata, and Milikana made it in, their avatars almost perfectly matching the pictures I drew for them as I return my attention back to Niatila

“Calm down Niatila. They’re friends of mine from a long time ago. We reunited just now over in Elwing’s server. I invited them to hang out here.”

“Oh. You’re friends of hers?”

“Yeah, for a super long time.”

“Before we get too wrapped up Macha, could you get the others who are around over here Mya? I’d like to minimize how many times I have to repeat myself.”

“Sure, but just write a notice on the board in the center after this if you want to keep things simple.” Niatila stretched her arms as she began to walk in the direction of the town at the center of the server, where I presume whoever else is in the server are.

“Erm...Karen-chan, why does your voice sound so different all of a sudden?”

“We have a voice modulator installed into the character scripts in this server Mili-chan, it distorts our voices to better fit our avatars’ species though we took a few liberties with more obscure species like the kitsune here. I ultimately decided to use dialects from the early Edo period and other such time frames, so basically: archaic formality of sorts for Shiroyuki here. Our characters were built from the get-go with that in mind but yours were transferred in so you guys can’t access that feature.”

“Uuu...I wish you mentioned that before. Oh well, we won’t be sticking around long with these characters since we’re going to transfer over to Alfheim tonight or tomorrow. By the way, is this a pre-generated world?”

“Hehe, nope. I handcrafted all of the environmental art here in this server. All the sand on the beach here, the buildings in the town over yonder, the crystal clear waters, we included some custom scripts to refine the day and night system and even simulate the temperatures from the sun and moon. It really is a labor of love Ebina-chan. Of course, the physics engine takes care of the tough stuff.”

* * *

I was soon interrupted by the arrival of my friends who are within the server: Kazuto, Kana, Katsuo, and of course Sylvia since she was here relaxing on the beach, or rather: the elf Yoru, the android INTEGRAL, the dragonoid Kershu, and Niatila. I guess Asa, or rather: Asuna isn’t in the game

“Hey Yoru, INTEGRAL, Kershu. Mind if I ask what you guys were doing?”

“Don’t worry Shiroyuki, I was keeping these two occupied until Asa returns with research materials and Niatila was waiting for you to get back into the server. But who are those three?”

“Right, let me get introductions out of the way, I’ve known all of you guys for a long time and I can trust you to tolerate each other at worst. Meet some of my first friends: Ebina Nishimura, Milikana Hiratasuka, and Murata Masayuki.” As I introduced them in order, Ebina sheepishly smiled as she softly grabbed her arm, holding it across her chest, Milikana turned her gaze away borne from her more timid personality compared to the rest of us, and Murata moved his arm toward his stomach as he made a formal ninety degree bow. I then turned to face the friends I had made within Sword Art Online “And these are some of the friends I made within the last couple years: Kazuto Kirigaya, Kana Shimuzu, Katsuo Viperia, and Sylvia Miyagawa.”

As soon as the introductions were done, Kana cupped her hand on her chin for a moment as she focused her gaze on Milikana as she smiled and approached her with her right hand extended

“What a surprise Kaina-chan, I didn’t think I’d get to see you like this. Remember me? Amaterasu?”

“OH! Yeah, it’s good to see you again! I didn’t know why you were seemingly disqualified from the WCG back in 2022. So you were an SAO victim too?”

“Yeah, we both were. Good to see you too Hiratasuka-san.”

“Mind if I ask as to what you guys are talking about?” I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Milikana, Kana, and Katsuo knew each one another before SAO since we’ve done IRL meetings and I’ve never heard any mention of either Kana or Katsuo in her life before now. Sure, I know that everyone has the right to their private lives but the two of us have shared plenty about one other so it's strange that this never came up.

“Oh yeah, Kana was actually fairly active in esports before the whole SAO incident. You see, both she and Hiratasuka-san were going to be participants in the World Cyber Games and for the first time, they were going to be teaming up with one other person in a 3v3 Starcraft match. They were rivals up until then.”

“Yeah, Amaterasu planned on being Terran while I’d be Protoss. It fits our playstyles to be honest since my aptitude specialized with highly experienced small group tactics while Amaterasu leans more toward mobile forces.”

“She’s not wrong on that one. Some of my peers have jokingly said that I was a talented general without equal when it comes to strategy games.”

“Wait, something about that confuses me a tiny bit INTEGRAL, admittedly, it’s something I’ve wondered about. If you’re so good, why did you restrain yourself back in SAO and not ask to lead a unit? While you did lead Silver Valkyrie, you never exactly showed interest in leadership since you had the merchants in your guild typically working independently.”

“True, true. But what Kaina-chan failed to relay is that I have some Zerg-like tendencies. I’d sacrifice hundreds or even thousands to achieve my goal, but I couldn’t let myself do that in a death game with limited numbers, so I had to restrain myself and work in a support role as best I could. Of course, now, I’m not wholly convinced I can bring myself to do it anymore since I’m aware of the danger firsthand.”

“Okay, that makes sense I suppose. But where’d the nickname Kaina come from?”

“That’s simple. Her name is Milikana, mine is Kana, her name can be a bit of a mouthful and to avoid any sort of confusion, I gave her a nickname of Kaina since I didn't really find Mili all that great, but you seem to Karen, so I won't argue.”

“Ah, I see now.” I’m soon interrupted by my thoughts with a notification appearing in my FOV: [**Dinner’s ready everyone, time to eat.**] “Sorry to cut things short everyone, but we need to go eat.”

“Yeah, we should go too. Would you mind if we come back here some time Itsu?”

“You don’t even have to ask Murata-kun. Although we keep our files classified like I told you, you’re all free to come and go as you wish. Enjoy the tiny slice of paradise I’ve crafted here. Later guys.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let’s just say that I’ve actually been through a situation like I described about in Asuka Empire in a MMO I played a long time ago. The process was almost exactly as I described. I won’t name the player or the MMO, but the woman was crazy since this wasn’t like a World of Warcraft raid guild, it was a pretty casual guild in an animesque kind of setting. Makes me think she went off her meds or something but I digress.
> 
> More importantly, I may end up getting flak for how I'm writing Yae Chiba's character, but here's the thing to think about. This is a fictional character I have created and as said by Tuong Lu Kim on South Park (albeit with paraphrasing): [I'm not a stereotype, okay. I'm just a normal person like all of you. I'm not a stereotype.] I do try my utmost to make my original characters seem like actual people who could exist in our real world, not just tropes to check off a list. Yes, I'm writing something arguably way out of left field, particularly something outside my comfort zone, but I'm sure at least one person has, at least, a similar mindset to her.


	4. Auxilia

Real Life Standard Time: [19:30] May 6th 2026

After we finished eating our meal and our studying sessions for the night, I felt nostalgia beginning to overwhelm me as I shoot up a quick PM to Milikana on my computer, asking if they’d be willing to hang out somewhere in a Seed world and I’m surprised to get a reply almost immediately

[**If you could give us a half hour Karen-chan, certainly! We’re in Alfheim Online. I hope you don’t mind that we listed you as a benefactor in the game for a boost in EXP and extra equipment. We’re over in a city called Arun.**]

[**That’s fine, just don’t spread it around.**]

As soon as I had started looking through games I had accounts in, I was met with a notification of an email with a redacted address which I thought wasn’t possible to create, though with everything I’ve seen, particularly with how Mamoru was able to create new identification for Hikaru, I’ve tried to establish an open mind with what technology can do, though the simplicity of the message concerns me

[**Meet me outside of Arun’s western quarter. I’ll inform you of when you’re close.**]

I felt nervous beads of sweat begin to roll down my back as I read this shockingly simple message as I returned my attention towards Millikana [**Hey, I’m thinking of heading to Alfheim myself. I’m in Arun myself so could you meet me at the western gate?**] I feel horrible getting my friends wrapped up in something potentially dangerous, but it’d be riskier for me to handle this solo and none of the others are near Arun, well, aside from Madoka but she doesn’t know how to fight yet and I’m not involving one of my best friends’ sister; she’d tried to kill me.

[**Of course! Meet you there!**] Milikana’s joyfulness did little to assuage the unease in my heart but I don’t have all that many options. I am a horrible friend to get them involved in something risky after only just reuniting with them but I don’t have all that many options.

A few minutes passed as I logged into Alfheim’s server, choosing to sign in as Ashikaga though I’ve recently gone ahead and changed her complete appearance since I didn’t want her to look like me so I’ve changed her brunette hair to violet and changed one of her blue eyes to green. Once I find myself in the familiar landscapes of Arun, I head over to the west gate where I see four people standing about the area, one I recognize in Zekken who worked with me and my friends from SAO to clear Alfheim’s grand quest and rescue those of us who were trapped in the game, and three individuals cloaked in mythical-styled armor that reminds me of Halo’s Blue Team except they were painted white for Ishtar being a Fimbulvet, gold for Macha being a Puca, and red for Adalard being a Salamander; their armors having the emblem of their species on them which suggests that this is the equipment that they’ve been given for having me as a benefactor, which reminds me that this is a special promotional event going on right now since the new developers partnered with the creator of the series.

“Zekken? What are you doing here?” Although my words would usually be construed as combative, my tone was clearly that of confusion since I wasn’t expecting her to be here too.

“Hey Ashikaga, I was just about to head out to a dungeon but I saw these three standing around and it piqued my interest since not many people here have the kind of mindset for that; they’re always on the move. I take it they’re waiting for you?”

“Hit the hammer on the head.” With an amused smile, Zekken joined the trio, and considering how I don’t know experienced in battle Ebina and the others are, having Zekken around will be very helpful if a fight breaks out “Okay everyone, let’s get going. I have a certain destination planned.” As we began to walk out of the city, I saw a Spriggan with tanned skin, black hair and clear blue eyes wearing a blue coat covering a tube-top shirt and black shorts with her arms crossed, a solemn frown on her face, in the corner of my eye and I could swear that she’s training her gaze on me, and while I try to hide the fact that I’ve noticed her staring, I noticed something peculiar in that the irides in her eyes are that of a power symbol instead of normal dots ‘_Why does that individual fill my senses with so much dread? Something about her posture is...inhuman._’

* * *

POV: Spriggan

As soon as Karen and the others passed by her, the lone Spriggan maintained a sense of aloofness until they left the city, leading to the woman lifting an arm to her right ear as she pressed two fingers against it

[**I have the target in sight. Have you uncovered our infiltrators’ identities?**]

[**Negative. This particular batch of Scylorians were manufactured by loyalists to former Fleet Admiral Viridius to be the ultimate saboteurs since they can freely assume anyone’s identity. All we know is that the target is Karen Koizumi. Their objective is to prevent her from entering Gamindustri and thus preventing the establishment of the Multiverse Federation. That’s the easiest way for them to do it.**]

[**Fuck. I want to minimize the number of changes that happen in the past. I need names and faces.**]

[**Those things don’t just appear out of nowhere dammit! You need to give us time to conduct research.**]

[**Well if you haven’t noticed, time is something we have little of. Rendezvous with me outside of Arun. It’s time we meet up with our contact.**]

* * *

POV: Karen

While I don’t know how far this stranger is from the city, I’ve been continuously moving west since I’ve been receiving direct messages from a player known as Rain telling me to continue course until I see a flicker of a silhouette in the distance, with one more DM telling me to descend down to ground level. Gesturing the others to follow my lead, the five of us deactivate our wings when we were close to the ground as I see this silhouette being a Leprechaun with long red hair and brown eyes

“Are you Rain?”

“Indeed. I’m sure you remember me Lady Solaris.” Rain paused as she made a solemn salute with her right arm “Lieutenant Commander Yurikano of the Aincrad Liberation Front, personal guard to Solaris, reporting.”

“Yurikano, I’ll admit I’m surprised to see you since everyone in Aincrad has been dispersing back to their lives. Why did you contact me in such a vague manner?”

“Trust me, I would’ve wanted to be upfront with you, but I’ve been told to be secretive.”

“By who?”

“By us.”

Catching us all off-guard, the five of us quickly turn to our backs as the woman I saw earlier, flanked by another who is also a Leprechaun like Rain with fawn brown hair and eyes as I finally catch a glimpse at their names: Philia and Ceba, recognizing that Ceba has the same symbols in her eyes as Philia. As they stepped closer to us, Murata drew his blade and moved to be in front of us all, ready to fight if the need demanded it, Rain having walked forward to join the duo.

“Don’t be stupid now. You’ll never win a fight against either of us. I suggest you stand down if you know what’s good for you.” It was irritating how condescending Philia made herself out to be when she spoke to Murata and it made me want to jump into the fray myself.

“Then I suggest you give me a good reason to!”

Philia paused for a moment as she looked towards Ceba “You think we have energy to spare?”

“_No. We don’t. _ Don’t waste it on these people.”

Philia responded to this with a simple sigh as she looked toward me “Tell me, how...open minded do you consider yourself?”

This question really confuses me since I’m not sure what her angle is on the matter and the question itself is relatively philosophical “Well...after everything I’ve been through in Sword Art Online, I’m trying to avoid certain kinds of biases since I’ve encountered things that shouldn’t be possible if science were to be believed.”

“Ah yes, the catalyst of all things.” This response only confused me further since Philia seemingly just called SAO a catalyst to something “Okay listen. This is something I would’ve preferred staying quiet about but it’s too risky for you to be in the dark.” Philia paused for a moment as she nervously paced about the area, her eyes darting in multiple directions before returning her gaze at me “My...partner and I here have come from the year 2048 with several others on a mission of the utmost importance. A number of assassins fled into this time period with the ability to transform their appearances at will and we’ve been ordered to either capture or neutralize them and prevent them from completing their objective.”

“204-Y-You’re from the future?!” I’m not surprised Millikana is shocked by this turn of events since it shocked all of us, though the fact Rain is unfazed makes me wonder if I should be impressed or not.

“You guys have the tech to do something like that?”

“Erm, kinda. We needed to reach out to a rather aloof ‘ally’ to do this and we’ve made enemies out of a friend in the process. We’re going to need to submit to court marshals when we get back but well...one thing at a time. Tell me, do these people know who you are? Your real name?”

“Yeah, these are my childhood friends, I worked alongside Karatachi-san back in SAO enough that I felt comfortable revealing it and vice versa, and I know I can trust Zekken to be discreet about this.”

“Okay then, Karen M-Karen Koizumi; sorry, slip of the tongue. Anyway, we’re not sure why, but the assassins marked you as their target. We’re not sure if they’ll target you in the physical realm or in the virtual world but we’re splitting our team in half to ensure both are covered. Circumstances in our time are...not the best but the people who came with us have your best interests in mind and want to keep you safe.”

“I’d like to interject for a moment Philia. If you could, we’d like to meet up with the Nakasone family to discuss certain matters. We’re hoping to establish a smoother transition and maintain a believable cover story while we remain in this time period.”

“Um...wait a sec. I must be mishearing you. D-Did you say that _ assassins _ are after me?! What did I do to deserve something like this?!”

“It’s a long story and explaining it jeopardizes our mission. I’m sorry.”

“Question.” Ebina managed to recover from a stupor of shock enough to weakly raise her hand.

“Yes?”

“Erm, Philia-san...is that man back there one of your companions who came with you? His avatar is breaking for some reason.”

* * *

Dread filling their faces, they turned to face an armored Salamander’s avatar glitching, his body limping as if he’s not able to control it properly

“Shit!! That’s one of the assassins!”

[**YoU WiLL DiE KarEN KOiZUmi!!!**] Despite what seemed for frailty since this body seemed like it was having trouble just walking, not to mention his broken speech, he swiftly unleashed a large inferno of blue flames and sent it against me, forcing us all to leap in different directions to avoid the flames

“How did he use magic without using Alfheim’s words of power?!”

“It’s because that’s not magic! At least, not Alfheim’s magic!” As soon as she regained her footing, Philia drew a dagger as Ceba rushed forward to her right side, sword in hand “You all get out of here!! This guy is not someone you can survive against!”

“But Alfheim has a delayed log-out period!”

“Are you f-?!?! Fine. We’ll keep this bastard off you! Rain, protect your boss and her friends while we distract him and then run once they’re safe.”

The pair dashed into the fray as I activated the game’s log-out system alongside Murata, Ebina, and Milikana as Rain drew dual blades in the event this Salamander gets close, though it’s evidently doubtful that’ll happen since these two have some astounding synergy and skill in battle but it’s also just as clear that this strange Salamander is just as powerful since he’s not giving an inch as the last sight I see is Philia being sent reeling with a vicious slash. Once I found myself back in reality, I was panting heavily from fright and adrenaline coursing through my veins. What doesn’t help the anxiety was the sound of my cell phone going off with three email notifications, seeing them come from Milikana, Ebina, and Murata. Tearing off the Amusphere off my head, I rush toward my computer, fire up a voice chat program and invite the three of them

“Itsu, what the actual hell was that?! I’m sweating so much, it’s as if I was stuck in a freaking sauna!”

“I-I have no idea what just happened! I received an email from an encrypted source to go to that area and I was too scared to go alone so I asked you guys to come along with me.”

“Karen-chan, I wish you told us this to begin with. You don’t need to keep secrets from us. If you had only told us about this, we would’ve come with you no questions asked. I think of you as a little sister after everything we’ve been through and you know we care about you.”

“Sorry Ebina-chan, I just...I wasn’t thinking straight. And it’s been a long time. And after what Yam-Yae-chan said, it just rattled me I guess.”

“It’s okay. Just tell us next time.”

“I’m going to try getting some information about what’s going on. I’ll...I’ll keep you guys in the loop.”

* * *

Real Life Standard Time: [21:00] May 6th 2026

I end the call there as I take a few moments to breath and try to calm my nerves since my hands have been shaking like crazy as I open the door to my room and walk down to the living room, seeing Mamoru, Sylvia, Madoka, and Keiko spread out, the latter three watching Love Live Sunshine as I hear them singing along with the song: My Mai☆ Tonight, and Mamoru sitting at the dinner table with his laptop in front of him. Recalling what Ceba had mentioned before, I walked over to join Mamoru at the table as he raised his head up

“Something up Karen? You look a little worse for the wear.”

“Erm, yeah...no? I just got a little spooked by something that happened in Alfheim. Do you mind if I ask you something?”

“Of course not. Your parents approved of me handling these sorts of matters while they’re not around and after Aincrad, I’m actually hurt you think you need to ask for my time; well, when I’m not busy working. What do you need?”

“Well, it’s-” I was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing “In a sec.”

Pulling myself from the chair, I walk over toward the door as I hear Mamoru’s footsteps behind me and open it, seeing an older woman with mid-length dark red hair and green eyes wearing a black business suit

“I apologize for interrupting you at this hour, but I’m new to this city and I need directions.”

After presenting us a sheet of paper with an address on it, Mamoru and I stare at its contents and I’m baffled at what I’m seeing since it implies it’s somewhere in Tokyo but I’ve never heard of this place and based on Mamoru’s expression, neither has he

“Sorry miss, but I’ve never heard of this place. Are you sure it’s spelled right? I think I’ve heard of a similar street, but it’s not in Tokyo.”

“Strange, I thought it was around here.”

Something began to click in my head when I recall this particular remark from Philia before that weird Salamander player attacked us [My...partner and I here have come from the year 2048 with several others on a mission of the utmost importance.] “You’re...here for me aren’t you?”

“How do you-? Philia. That girl is always so impulsive and impossible to read. Did she give a reason why she revealed herself?”

“One of your ‘friends’ paid me a visit in Alfheim. Philia and Ceba told me to leave it to them.”

After hearing this, the woman’s expression darkened “I see. So we can no longer stay in the shadows. They've made themselves known now.”

“Karen, what exactly are you talking about?”

“It’s too long of a story to explain right now Mamoru Nakasone.” The woman paused as she dug a hand into her pants pocket and pulled out a flash drive “Everything you need to know is here. I need to meet with my companions to discuss our plans. Either way, I’m glad to see you again Karen Koizumi.” Finishing this with a formal bow with her arm crossed, she walked away with a sense of purpose.

“Karen, I’ve seen a _ lot _ of weird things since our time in Aincrad, but this certainly ranks high among it all. Remember that I’ve had no objection to you guys killing me when I betrayed you.”

“Trust me, I’m struggling to wrap my head around what’s happening myself. Let’s um...let’s get Madoka and Tsubasa to bed and gather everyone else in the kitchen.”

* * *

Mamoru nodded in response to this since we don’t want to get those two involved as he walked over toward the trio as I walked back to the kitchen, finding that he’s talking to them with Keiko walking with Madoka up the stairs while Sylvia heads to the rec room, remembering that we were doing another pool tournament, though I had gotten knocked out in the first round since I suck at that game and watching them play didn’t interest me.

When we had gathered together in the kitchen, I reluctantly divulged the situation about the assassins from the future which understandably made them confused as if I’m trying to act like a chuunibyou or I’m still suffering from Sugou Nobuyuki’s attempt to mentally alter us back in Alfheim, both I’d actually consider more plausible than this if I hadn’t been exposed to it first-hand as Mamoru inserted the flash drive into his laptop which quickly activated a program embedded within it as a holographic display shined out of the screen, with seven people glowing a navy blue; their features making me think that these are hard light creations as they begin to look about the room and at each other

[**You activated us? Did something happen?**]

“Wait, that seemed strangely...human Philia. Aren’t you just a recording?”

[**No we’re not Karen Koizumi. We are adaptive AI that were created by brain uploading flash created brains of our ‘hosts’, or in Khronos’ case, a separate data core. Normally AI like us are meant to be created after the death of the individual provided they consented beforehand but this mission requires some flexibility. Hence; the minds of these agents being cloned. Essentially, aside from myself, Ceba, and Khronos, there are three of us in existence as we speak: ourselves, our originals, and the originals in your timeline whom you have not met. The three of us don’t exist yet.**]

“So...are these your real names?”

[**No, they are not Asuna Yuuki. Our originals were sent into this time period with disguised bodies and surrogate names to minimize disruptions to the time stream. The goal is to prevent the possibility of you knowing their identities before you are meant to. Names, bodies, voices, everything has been changed to account for this.**]

“Okay well, what do we call you all?”

[**The names our originals are using are embedded in this flash drive. It is time we put an end to this conversation for now. Your laptop’s battery is at ten percent.**] After hearing Khronos speak, Mamoru rushed to his laptop and looked at his battery gauge

“How is this possible?!? It’s only been five minutes and it was at 100%!”

[**We are sentient AI programs running operations made twenty years in the future and we’re being run with a laptop that has a limited battery. Are you really surprised?**]

After the holograms disappeared, Mamoru attached a charger to help deal with the strain of how much power the AIs needed to maintain that physical form as we spread out through the living room, Mamoru joining us as he shows us a sheet of paper with names written down on them with his handwriting: Kotone Takemiya, Kai Yasunari, Minami Maiya, Tsugiri Okichi, Tsujihara Ari, Kaoru Orika, and Khronos

“So...these assassins are really after you Karen?”

“Based on what I’ve seen and been told, I’m afraid so Asuna.”

“And Philia said they have some manner of shapeshifting right?” I answer Sylvia’s question with a simple nod, her expression darkening at my response as she turned to face all of us “If you’re the one they’re trying to deal with, it’s likely that they’ve replaced at least one of us to get close to you. And unfortunately, we were all by ourselves for at least some time so there isn’t anyone who’s clearly innocent. Karen, you need to be careful with who you trust right now, even myself. For all you know, I could be one of these assassins trying to make you paranoid.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys, I wanna say, the fact that each of the chapters so far have started with Rs are completely accidental, I genuinely didn’t even notice until I got half-way through this particular chapter when I had to go back to earlier chapters to ensure my time-stamps fit.
> 
> Also, for those of you who may have noticed some of the small details, I’ve actually been assembling a compilation of stories across a couple of my entries: Memoria Oasis, Parthenian Legionnaire, Vermillion Knights, and now Reset Code Ragnarok which follow the lead from Code Hunter. While there’s a fair amount of overlap, the timeline for my Code series with these stories go as thus: Code Hunter, Memoria Oasis, Parthenian Legionnaire: Invasion, Vermillion Knights, Parthenian Legionnaire, and lastly: Reset Code Ragnarok.


End file.
